The Football Jacket
by a-little-glimmer
Summary: Dan is a nobody, bottom of the social ladder, bullied constantly by the football team. Phil is the new kid, but he has no trouble fitting in. A phenomenal football player with stunning good looks, that's never been an issue. So Dan thinks it must be some sick joke when Phil is his locker neighbor for the year. But will an unlikely relationship blossom? eventual phan (obvi). hs au.
1. Chapter 1

The high school looms before him, brick after brick stacked in the same boring formation but still somehow managing to strike that first pang of fear in his chest. It's Phil's fifth school in seven years. With a father in the military, his family's constantly being shuffled around, so it should've been nothing new when his parents told Phil and his brother that they were moving again. Luckily, his parents had promised they wouldn't be moving after this, as Phil's going to be a junior and has to focus on his studies. Phil has gotten exceptionally good at making friends and adjusting to a new school, and yet, something about the first day at a new school stirs up that terrified feeling in his chest. Phil looks back at his mom in the car behind him which he had just left, and her encouraging grin gives him that push to take a deep breath, turn back around, and walk toward the front steps.

Phil had been to this particular school before, so it's not as horrible as past years. Because Phil wanted to be on the football team, which he had been on at his old school, the coaches had required him to attend the summer training program before the year started. During that, Phil was able to meet some of his fellow classmates that would be going to school with him in the fall. He was also able to walk around the school during a tour led by one of his teammates, Andrew.

"Hey, Phil!" A familiar voice calls. Speaking of, Phil looks in the direction of the sound and sees Andrew striding towards him. "I see you got your jacket," he says, gesturing to the jacket specific to the varsity football team that they both were wearing. Andrew had explained it was a rule for the football players to wear their jackets on the first day of school and on the days that they had games later in the evening, but it was tradition to wear it every day ('school spirit and all that', Andrew had said).

"Um, yeah," Phil mutters, giving a small smile and smoothing out the fabric.

"So how are you? Ready for your first day?" Andrew questions, doing his best to make Phil more comfortable.

"A bit anxious, but I've done this type of thing before," Phil says, shrugging. Andrew knows about Phil's dad, how they're a military family, and how they have to move a lot.

"Ah, right. Well, let me know if you need anything," Andrew says with a smile before moving away to greet some of his other friends. Phil sighs, already resigning himself to a lonely first day. He knows Andrew means well, but he clearly isn't going to be Phil's best friend.

Phil walks through the front door and finds his way down the halls to his locker, trying to remember where he's going without having to look at a map. He finally arrives and sees a boy leaning his shoulder on Phil's locker, who looks to be Phil's age although he is much shorter. Well, Phil's quite tall, so that isn't a surprise, and he's also pretty slim to be a football player. Phil prepares himself and walks up to the boy. "Hey."

* * *

Dan is shuffling around in his locker, stacking his books in a pile on his arms. He's leaning on the locker next to his, facing his open one, and not really thinking anything of it. Then he hears a voice coming from in front of him. "Hey." Dan turns and the first thing he sees is the red fabric of a varsity football jacket. He reflexively flinches, memories of being pushed around, slammed into lockers, and made fun of by people in those jackets rising to the front of his brain. "Dude, relax, I'm not gonna hurt you," The voice says, a lilt in his speech suggesting the smile on his face.

Dan opens his eyes. "Then, w-why are you talking to me?" He questions, looking up into the boy's face. "Oh, you're new," Dan realizes upon not recognizing the beautiful boy standing in front of him. A look of confusion crosses the boy's face.

"Why would you think I would hurt you?" he says.

"'Cause you're on the f-football- you know what, nevermind," Dan says.

"Okaayyy, anyway," the boy continues, "you're uh, standing in front of my locker," he explains.

"Shit, really?" Dan mutters, moving out of the way. He can't believe his luck. Of all the people that could've gotten the locker next to his, it was a football player. The football team had been his main tormentors for the past year, and since they rule the school no one would stick up for him. Of course, Dan tried to defend himself in the beginning, but that had only made things worse. He did have a group of friends that stuck by him, although they never wanted to get involved.

"Do you have a problem with that?" The boy asks Dan, shocking him back to reality.

"No! Um, sorry," Dan apologizes quickly. He knows it's a long shot, but because this kid is a new student, maybe he won't join in on the team's favorite hobby. Maybe he'll even get them to stop. The kid seems nice, anyway.. "Uh, I'm Dan by the way. Dan Howell. What's your name?" He asks.

"Phil Lester," Phil answers, smiling.

"So, uh, where did you move here from?" Dan says, turning back to his locker to pick up a couple more things.

"How did you know I moved here?" Phil questions, turning to his own locker and fiddling with the lock.

"Well, you're on the football team, and I'm pretty sure I know everyone on the football team.." Dan trails off with a grim smirk.

"How?" Phil questions the brown-haired boy again as he opens the locker.

"Uh, the team gave me a pretty hard time last year," he says.

"Why?"

"You have a lot of questions, don't you? Well, um, who knows why anyone would do that?" Dan gives a vague answer, not really wanting to get into the whole thing with someone he just met.

Dan closes his locker and stuffs his pile of books into his open backpack. "So, I'll see you in homeroom?" He asks hopefully to the tall boy standing next to him.

"No, uh, wait a sec," Phil says before shoving his own books into his bag and slamming the locker. They both flinch at the sound and some heads turn as the noise rises above the usual chatter in the hallway. "..oops," he mutters with a lopsided grin down towards Dan. He offers a smile back and they walk into the classroom together just a little ways down the hallway, as the closest lockers to a classroom were given to students that had that class as their homeroom.

Dan weaves his way through the lines of desks toward the one in the back corner and drops his backpack on the floor while sliding into the seat. Phil copies Dan, dropping into the chair next to his. They chat about their schedules and compare them to see if they have any classes together (Lunch 4th period and World History 7th period). Suddenly, the bell rings and the two boys glance up to see the room has filled without their realizing it. Phil looks to his left and sees a girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes looking at him as well. They give each other a small smile in recognition, but Phil is sure that is the only interaction they will have with each other all year.

"All right, good morning, class," the teacher addresses the students as he walks to the front of the room. "Welcome to homeroom. I am your.. supervisor, shall we say, Mr. Thompson. I also teach World History, some of you may have me later in the day." Phil and Dan glance knowingly toward each other. "During these first 10 minutes of the day, I will take attendance and we will listen to the announcements. You may use the rest of the time to chat with your neighbors or study schoolwork," Mr. Thompson continues. "Let's get started, shall we?"

As Mr. Thompson calls out the names, Phil glances around and tries to associate the names with the faces while Dan pulls out his phone. It appears as though everyone in the class are juniors, like him. "Daniel Howell?" the teacher says from the front. Dan just casually raises his hand without looking up from the phone. A few heads turn to stare, but Mr. Thompson continues calling roll. Eventually the alphabet reaches him, Phil responds with a confident 'here,' and even more heads turn back towards the direction of his voice to see who possessed the unfamiliar name. Phil shifts uncomfortably underneath the stares, but Mr. Thompson, thankfully, continues.

The rest of homeroom passes uneventfully, but a few people come back to talk to Phil (thoroughly ignoring Dan). A couple minutes later, the bell rings, and a chorus of chairs being scraped back on the floor ring into the air as students pack up their stuff. "I'll see you at lunch, yeah?" Phil asks Dan before he leaves.

"Um, I guess so," Dan replies, surprised at the idea Phil might _actually_ want to sit with him.

"Cool. Catch you later," Phil says, giving him a quick smile before walking to his next class.

"See you," Dan mumbles a quiet farewell, even though Phil is out of hearing range, and turns in the opposite direction Phil went to head to his first period.

A/N: Hey guys! I decided to write a hs AU. obviously. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! Please follow/favorite if you did, and leave a review telling me what you think! ~L

update 7/7/18: hey y'all, so i've decided to go through this fic and touch up the early chapters, cause looking back i see a lot of grammar mistakes and just things that could be written a lot better which i want to edit. i've also been seeing only the first chapter get hits but people aren't continuing to read this, so hopefully making these first chapters less shit will change that. i _did_ start this about a year ago, and i have (hopefully) improved writing since then, which is making me want to go back and change some things. so this is the first chapter i have redone, if you're just now finding this fic and there is no update of this kind on the next chapters that means i haven't redone them yet. but please keep reading, i promise they're not as shit as i'm making them out to be. love you guys! *cheesy hand hearts from pinof 1* ~l


	2. Chapter 2

Phil navigates through the halls, trying to find his way to his first class, Chemistry. Glancing into a classroom as he passes it, he sees lab tables and science instruments cluttering the cabinets. _Ok, so I'm in the science wing_ , Phil thinks with relief. Pulling out his phone, he presses the lock button to view his screensaver. It was a picture of his schedule so that he could see it easily during the first weeks of school before he had his schedule memorized, which was a handy tip he'd picked up a couple years ago.

Phil continues walking down the hallway until he reaches classroom 154. He takes a breath before he goes in, and then passes through the doorway. The classroom is about halfway full, only a few kids scattered at some desks with the rest standing in small groups and talking to each other. A bout of laughter resonates from one group in the corner, and Phil suddenly feels very overwhelmed. However, he steels himself and, taking Dan's approach, Phil makes his way to the empty desk in the corner of the room. He sets his bag on the floor and slides into the chair.

"Um, hi, is anyone sitting here?" Phil looks up from his seat to see a girl, with light blonde hair and light blue eyes, standing over him. "Oh! Er, no, go ahead," Phil replies with a small smile. "Cool, thanks!" She pulls out the chair next to Phil and drops into the seat. "I'm Peyton, by the way. You're Phil, right?" "Um, yeah, how did you know?" He asks confusedly. "Oh, everyone's talking about a _gorgeous_ new _football player_ who _looked at me with his adorable blue eyes!_ " Peyton fawns dramatically, obviously quoting someone she overheard on the way to the class. Phil laughs, and they settle into an easy conversation about the day so far.

A minute later, the bell rings shrilly and the teacher walks into the room. "Alright, alright, class, take your seats!" He calls, setting papers on his desk. Once everyone scrambles into seats next to their friends, the teacher stands back up front. "I'm Mr. O'Brien, your chemistry teacher this year," he says with a smile. "Now, first order of business.."

The class passes slowly, as Mr. O'Brien goes through the syllabus, lab safety procedures, where everything is in the classroom, and other typical first day things. The only thing that makes the dull class a bit better are Phil and Peyton's funny remarks they whisper to each other.

"Alright, thank you for paying such good attention the entire period. I know it was boring, but these rules are especially important in a chemistry classroom! Remember to sign your papers for tomorrow, and you have a minute to pack up and chat with your friends," Mr. O'Brien finishes up the class.

The students all begin to gather their things and cluster around the doorway. Phil reaches down to grab his backpack and stands, as Peyton picks up her bag and faces Phil. "So.. how many times do I have to flirt with you before you ask for my number?" She asks with a coy smile. "But don't mention that 'we have chemistry together', that's so cliche," she rolls her eyes and smiles again. "Wait, what? That-that was flirting?" Phil asks in surprise. "Um, yeah," Peyton says with a little frown, clearly offended. Phil immediately regrets what he said. "Oh! No, no, no, don't take that the wrong way. It's just, I have a hard time recognizing when people are flirting with me," he explains, his cheeks heating up. "Ah, ok." She brushes a strand of hair from her face, relieved that it was Phil's fault he didn't pick up on her hinting, not her flawed flirting abilities. "So, does this mean you still want my number?" Peyton asks expectantly.

"Well, no," he says. "It's just, you're not really my type," he says with a little grin. The bell rings, and students start to file out the door, along with the teacher. However, Peyton doesn't follow. "What, pretty, funny, girls aren't your type?" She snaps. Phil can see she's trying to cover her humiliation with anger. "Um, not exactly." Phil looks around to make sure everyone has left the room before looking back to Peyton. "See, more like girls in general aren't really my type." Peyton looks puzzled for a moment again, before the realization hits her. "Oh! Oh, god, I'm sorry for hitting on you then," she says, blushing. "..and yelling at you." She apologizes with a wince. "No, it's ok, it's flattering really," Phil reassures her. "And don't worry about it, I'm sure I'd be mad if someone told me I wasn't his type. But.. can you keep this quiet for a little while? I'm the new kid, and I don't want anyone finding out until I'm ready for people to know," he says.

"Yeah, of course!" Peyton responds. "Thanks for telling me, though, I know you didn't plan to," she says awkwardly with a little smile. "It's no big deal, I just thought you should know so you didn't feel bad," he says, starting to walk to the door. Peyton follows, they say their goodbyes, and both turn separate ways off to each their next class.

* * *

Dan's first classes pass by uneventfully. His friend Lucas was in his first period, and his other friend Nathan was in his second period class. Then third period rolls around. Dan, again, beelines straight to the desk in the back corner, which, thankfully, was empty. He settles in to the chair, ignoring everyone standing around him, and places his bag on the floor. "Hey, Howell," A voice growls from above him. Dan looks up, straight into the eyes of the biggest linebacker on the football team, Aaron. Dan gulps. "Hey, Aaron, how was your summer?" He says weakly. "What do you care? I'm trying to tell you you're in my seat. So get. the hell. out of it," Aaron snarls. "I didn't see your stuff here," Dan retaliates calmly, but his voice shakes, giving away his false sense of bravery. "So I sat down. This is my seat now." He couldn't believe what he was doing! _Do you have a death wish?! Just get out of the fucking chair!_ His brain thought violently. But a small, defiant part of himself wouldn't let him do it. Sometime during the summer, he must've vowed not to have a repeat of the year before, and Dan just couldn't let himself give in so easy.

Aaron's face reddens (he never had a good temper), and Dan hurriedly begins to rethink standing up for himself. But then, "Hey! What's up guys?" Lucas comes to the rescue. Aaron rounds on him. "You're little _friend_ is in my seat." "I don't see you sitting in it," Lucas replies. Just as Dan starts planning Lucas' funeral, the bell rings and a thin woman floats into the room. "Class, class! Take your seats!" She calls to the group of students. Aaron grunts. "You got lucky this time, _Howell_ ," he sneers. Lucas slips into the chair next to Dan while Aaron shuffles across the room to join two of his teammates at a table.

"Thanks, bro," Dan whispers to Lucas. With brown, curly hair and freckles dotting his cheeks, Lucas was an outgoing and hilarious guy, so Dan wasn't very surprised when Lucas defended him. On the other hand, he _was_ surprised because Lucas tried to keep everything light-hearted and hated confrontation. "No problem, dude. This is the year for change - we're not gonna repeat last year," he voices Dan's private resolution. "I'm really sorry I didn't have the guts to stand up for you last year, and I promise not to let you go through that shit again." Dan nods gratefully, a bit embarrassed if he was being honest, but still completely thankful to have a friend like Lucas.

However, they still hurry very quickly out of the room at the end of class - although they'd agreed to not let the football players push Dan around again, why wait around for the trouble to walk right up to them? Of course, this was the only reason for Dan's haste. Definitely not to see the beautiful boy he had met earlier that morning and get to know him better at lunch...

Lucas chats to Dan about how he got to see his favorite band in concert over the summer, and convinces him to look the band up after school and listen to their music. Their conversation is cut short, sadly, when Dan has to turn a hallway to reach his locker. "See ya, Luke," Dan calls over his shoulder. "I'll meet you at lunch!" Lucas shouts after him, much to the surrounding students' dismay as the noise cuts through the air.

Dan makes his way to his locker and swiftly unlocks it, then deposits his books at the bottom and swaps them out for materials he needed for the afternoon, glancing over his shoulder every so often to see if he could spot that black mop of hair above the crowd.

But it never comes.

The seconds tick by as Dan waits, rearranging his locker's contents to pass the time. Soon the school's fight song plays over the loudspeakers, signaling one minute until the bell rings, and Dan finally closes his locker and heads to the cafeteria. He slips inside the door just a few moments before the bell rings, scans the room for his friends, and slides into a table on the edge of the large room next to Lucas. "Hey, guys," Dan greets his friends sitting at the table - Nathan and Lucas, of course, and two others Dan hadn't seen yet today, Emmett and Ben. Dan's friends greet him, and Emmett and Ben share their schedules with Dan to see if they had any classes together later that afternoon (none with Ben, Spanish 8th hour with Emmett).

Then Dan glances up at the cafeteria entrance to see Phil, Andrew, and Jack, another football player, walk through the door. The lunch monitor strides over to see why the trio was late, and Andrew says something Dan can't hear because he is out of range. The monitor nods, and the three continue walking across the room to sit at the designated 'football team' table. Dan felt a small surge of anger - the team even had the teachers wrapped around their finger! But Dan's anger dissolves instantly as Phil looks his way.

Dan and Phil's eyes meet, and Phil offers him a small wave, along with his adorable smile, from across the room as he sits down. Dan gives a little wave back, transfixed by Phil's glinting, carefree grin. "Who are you waving at?" Nathan questions him, following Dan's gaze. However, Phil had already sat down, so Nathan looked straight past Phil to find someone looking their way. Dan mumbles an unconvincing "nobody" in responds to Nathan's question, but his friends don't let the conversation drop. "Ooh!" Ben exclaims mischievously. "Does Danny boy have a _special someone_?" The rest of his friends snicker as they tease him playfully. Dan laughs and brushes off their immature giggles, but Ben's words stay in the back of his mind for the rest of the day.

* * *

A couple hours later, Phil walks into Mr. Thompson's room right before 7th period starts, his eyes immediately scanning the room in search of Dan. When Phil doesn't find him, he walks over to the seat he had taken that morning.

"Hey, Phil," he hears a couple moments later, and Phil looks up to see Dan sliding in the corner seat on Phil's right, where he had also sat during homeroom. "Hey!" Phil responds. "Where did you come from?" Dan struggles to keep a straight face, and then, "Well, you see, Phil, when a man and a woman love each other very much.." Phil rolls his eyes and shoves Dan playfully. "Oh, shut up! You know what I meant. I just got here like 10 seconds ago so I wondered if our classes were near each other." "I came from Chemistry, with O'Brien," Dan says. "Oh, I have him first period. Anyway, yeah, I just came from Health which is right near there. Maybe we can walk together after 6th," Phil suggests. "Yeah, sure." Dan smiles.

The bell rings and Mr. Thompson walks into the room. "Hello, everyone! Take a seat, take a seat..."

When class is almost over (filled with another boring syllabus, setting up the Google Classroom, and more), Dan and Phil begin to pack up. Phil leans down, takes his phone out of his bag and places it on the desk, then leans back down to put his books inside it. _Bzz bzz._ His phone vibrates above him. "Ooh, you got a snapchat from Andrew," Dan reads off the screen. "Did I?" Phil sits back up and picks the phone off his desk. He looks at it for a couple moments more, then turns back to Dan. "Hey, do you have a snapchat?" "Oh, er- yeah, hold on." Dan pulls out his phone and fiddles with it for a moment more, then holds out his snapcode for Phil to scan. "'danisnotonfire?'" Phil quotes. "Hey, you can't judge! Your username is 'AmazingPhil', real creative," Dan teases him. Phil just laughs, then grins and says, "I'll snap you later, yeah?" Dan nods, smiling.

"Cool, I'll see you after school!" Phil says, slinging his backpack over his shoulder while standing up. "See you," Dan replies before continuing to stuff items into his bag. Phil walks out of the room and Dan watches him leave before standing up and heading to his last class of the day.

After 8th period, the two meet up again at their lockers. "Sup, Daniel," Phil says as arrives. Dan turns away from his open locker to glance at Phil. "First, don't call me that," he says with mock sincerity. "Second, hey!" Dan brightens. "So how was your first day at _Oakleaf High School_?" he asks dramatically. Phil laughs. "Eh, it was okay." "Alright, fair enough." Dan goes on to rant about how he hates his 8th period Spanish class and Phil jumps in with how much he hates his gym teacher. About a minute later, the two shut their lockers. "Alright, I got to go - football practice,'" Phil says with a sigh. "On the first day of school?" Dan asks incredulously. "Yep, literally every day after school." "Wow, fun. Well, I should get going too." "Why, do you take a bus?" Phil asks. "No, I drive, but I have to dedicate at _least_ five hours a day on the internet, so I better get home soon." Phil laughs, and they say goodbye once more before leaving the school.

A/N: Hey guys! So sorry it took like 3 weeks to get another chapter up, but I hope the length of this one makes up for it :/. I'm just really busy - between around 7 hours of school, about 7 hours of sleep, then homework and other shit, that only leaves like 5 hours a day for the internet, and it's hard to fit time to write into that busy schedule. Lol sorry, but seriously, sorry for the delay. I'm working on another fic that should be up by next weekend, feel free to yell at me if it isn't. Sidenote: just a reminder, all of my work is purely fictional. any similarity to reality is just a coincidence, although I am basing this fic off my own high school experience. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this update. If you did, follow/favorite, and don't forget to leave me a review telling me what you think! xoxo, ~lily


	3. Chapter 3

The days continue to pass, and Phil becomes increasingly more comfortable with the school. Every day he recognizes more people in the halls (though it was a fairly small school, to be fair), and he continues to form relationships with other people while strengthening his current ones. Contrary to what he first believed, Andrew was becoming one of Phil's closest friends - on the team, at least, along with two other members of his team, Ryan and Erik. But by far, Dan was becoming his best friend. Every day they learned more about each other, and they kept talking to each other late into the nights on Snapchat. It was like they had known each other for years. Phil couldn't explain it. It was like they just.. clicked, however cliche it was. However, Phil didn't mention this new friendship with the rest of his friends due to Dan's supposed unpopularity with the team, which he had touched on the first day of school, and Phil assumed the team didn't know. How very wrong he was.

* * *

Right before 7th period starts one day, Dan and Phil meet up in the hallway and began walking to World History together. "So, I've been meaning to ask you: how come you're late to lunch every day?" Dan asks. "Oh, well, it's kind of a long story.. well, not really - it's actually kind of stupid - ok, well Andrew is in my 3rd period class, Lit, and then he has us go meet up with Jack and Erik and Luke, then we all walk together to their 4th period classes - well, we drop them off along the way - then me and Andrew and Jack go to lunch," Phil explains quickly. "Ok, I didn't get any of that," Dan laughs. Phil grins, then tries to explain again, but even more confusingly. It takes their entire walk to World History for Dan to finally understand. "Ok, so you and Andrew go meet up with Jack, Erik, and Luke. Then you go to each of your lockers, drop off Erik and Luke at their 4th period class, and the three of you come to lunch," Dan confirms. "Exactly!" "Don't pride yourself on that explanation, it was my master decoding skills that figured out whatever the fuck you were trying to say," Dan laughs again as they walk into the classroom.

"So you basically just hang out with people from football?" "Well, I hang out with you. And this girl Peyton from Chemistry, did I tell you about her? And this guy from my health class. And I talk to these twins from from gym. And-" "Ok, I get it! You have a lot of friends." Dan rolls his eyes but smiles as Phil blushes. "But yeah, football is basically my life. What about you?" Phil asks. "I'm in a group of friends, there's like five of us. I'm sure you've seen us all together at lunch. I could introduce you to them one day," Dan says as they slide into their usual seats. "Yeah, I'd like that!" Phil agrees as he settles into his chair next to Dan.

"Anyway, I also wanted to ask what you do for fun," Phil says. Dan opens his mouth, but Phil interrupts him: "And don't give me the speech about how you live on the internet." Phil rolls his eyes. "What else do you like to do?" "Well, I play piano. I'm actually in a band with my friends. Well, I play keyboard, but I like classical piano better." _Oh god, I sound like a total nerd,_ Dan thinks, his cheeks burning up. However Phil responds, "Oh, that's really cool! I wish I could play an instrument," he says. "Well, I could teach you. I've been giving lessons to Nathan's brother," Dan suggests. "Really? That would be so cool!" "Yeah, I guess so," Dan agrees with a bashful smile. "Do you want to swing by my house this weekend?" Phil nods with a grin, and he starts to say something about texting him the address, but the shrill ring of the bell covers Phil's speech. Mr. Thompson strides into the room and class starts.

After class, as Phil is walking alone to his 8th period math class, a guy Phil vaguely recognizes stops him. "Hey, Phil, right?" He asks. "Um, yeah, and you're..?" "Ethan," the boy kindly supplies. "I'm in your Chemistry class. Anyway, you've been hanging around with that Dan kid, right?" Ethan says awkwardly. "Yeah, what about it?" Phil says warily. "Well, you're on the football team, right?" Phil gestures to his jacket, slightly annoyed at this point. "Just letting you know, the football team and Dan.. don't mix," Ethan says vaguely. "They might not want you being all.. buddy-buddy with him." "What is that supposed to mean?" "I.. I don't know, I gotta go." And, with the same look Dobby must've had after telling Harry something he probably shouldn't have, Ethan rushes off.

* * *

Several days later, the bell rings and Phil walks out of his 3rd period class with Andrew by his side. "I can't believe she already assigned us an essay. It's still the first week of school!" Andrew exclaims. "Relax, it's not due for another couple weeks. Honestly though, 4 pages? I see your point," Phil complains about his already piling up homework load. They continue to chat and find their way to Erik's locker, where he and Luke are already talking. "Hey, guys. Where's Jack?" Phil asks as they approach. Erik grabs a final textbook and closes his locker as he turns to meet the duo. "He had something to talk to Mr. Stuart about, but I would be cherishing these moments cause he said he had to talk to you next," Erik responds with a serious expression. "Shit, really?" Jack was the quarterback on the football team. He was a nice enough guy, but you really didn't want to get on his bad side. "What exactly did he say?" Phil asks. "I believe his exact words were, 'I gotta go book weight room time with Stu-pac, but when you see Phil tell him I need to talk to him,'" Luke replies. "Stu-pac?" "That's what he calls Stuart." Mr. Stuart was one of the gym teachers, and their football coach.

By this point, all four were walking towards Erik and Luke's next class. "Ok, well did he sound mean, like he was mad at me?" "Yeah," Erik said apologetically. "Good luck with that!" Luke calls as he and Erik turn into their 4th period classroom. "Damn, alright then," Andrew says to Phil as they walk to the lunchroom. The bell sounds and about a minute later they're walking through the cafeteria doors. The monitor wasn't at the entrance waiting to hear their excuse for being late (the same one they gave every day), but they don't notice her absence and continue walking.

Phil heads down the main aisle and weaves his way around the circular tables, Andrew following close behind. As he approaches their table in the middle of the room, he sees Jack already perched on the bench, everyone paying attention to him. When Andrew and Phil near the table, Jack looks up and stops talking about practice after school. He shushes everyone else, and Andrew sits down, but instead of making room for Phil, the other football players spread out to take up every free space. "Phil," Jack says bluntly, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, Jack. Erik said you wanted to talk to me?" "Yeah. So, how come I hear you've been hanging out with Homo Howell lately?"

The full meaning of the nickname doesn't register in Phil's mind yet. " _Howell?"_ Phil whispers confusedly, the name running through his mind, trying to match the faces with the names and figure out who Jack was talking about. Then he remembers the first day of school. _I'm Dan by the way. Dan Howell._ "Dan?" Phil asks in surprise. "Heh, I've been calling him Homo Howell so long I forgot he had a real name," Aaron chimes in, laughing with his teammates. Then the full significance of the name takes hold. "Wait, _Homo_ Howell?!" Phil exclaims. "Why do you call him that?!" He asks, even though he's pretty sure he knows the answer. "Cause he's gay, obviously," someone else at the table responds.

Phil gets over the news Dan is also gay and anger sets in. "What is wrong with you guys?! When he told me you guys.. essentially _bullied_ him last year, I didn't know it was because of that! Why in God's name would you make fun of him for that?!" He shouts. "Woah, dude, relax. Why are you getting so worked up?" Jack says defensively. "Because I'm gay!" Phil explodes. "I know what he's gone through. And you're all a bunch of assholes for making fun of him for something he can't change about himself!"

"That's enough, Mr. Lester!" The lunch monitor's sharp voice pierces the air as she marches over to the table. Suddenly Phil snaps back to reality, and he remembers the situation he's in. The cafeteria. The football players. The other students surrounding him on all sides. And... _Dan_. Phil whirls around and sees Dan, his shocked expression evident on his face even across the entire lunchroom. "God, I leave for five minutes to go to the bathroom.." The monitor mumbles disapprovingly to herself. "Let's go, Lester."

Phil silently follows the woman, staring at the ground as he feels everyone in the room's eyes boring into him. But most of all, he swears he can feel Dan's eyes following him like lasers as he walks out of the cafeteria, leaving everyone behind.

They walk silently through the halls to the main entrance, where the front office is. The monitor enters a large room and Phil follows her into what looks like the main administration office. There are several doors on the walls, labeled with things like 'Dean of Students', 'Security Office', and 'Principal'. She walks up to the front desk and says, "I need to speak with the Dean," motioning towards Phil. "Sure," the secretary responds, and buzzes the intercom on her desk. She speaks with a low voice into the speaker and says something along the lines of "Mrs. Jones needs to speak with you, she has a student with her," and a muffled voice responds. Somehow, the secretary understood that, and she directs Mrs. Jones to the Dean's office. "Wait here," she says sharply to Phil, then turns and crosses the room to the door labeled 'Dean of Students'.

Phil looks around and sits down in a chair along one of the walls. Hardly anyone else is in there with him, only the secretary, a few other administrative personnel, and a soccer mom-esque woman a few chairs down typing furiously on her phone. He waits there for only a few moments before the Dean's office door opens and an authoritative man beckons him inside. Phil reluctantly rises, leaving his backpack on the floor, and crosses the room inside the office. The man gestures for him to sit down, and says "Mrs. Jones tells me you were being disruptive in the lunchroom." When Phil says nothing, he continues: "Yelling at your teammates, _swearing_.." he trails off and looks expectantly at Phil. When Phil still says nothing, the man sighs and turns to the lunch monitor. "Thank you, Mrs. Jones, that will be all." She turns on her heel with a _hmph!_ and strides out of the office.

"Now, Phillip-" "Phil." He interrupts the Dean. "Yes, fine, Phil. You seem like a nice kid. Mr. Stuart tells me you're a great football player, and you seemed to get on well with the rest of your team. Well, today can contradict that," he mutters. "So why all the commotion in the cafeteria?" Phil shrugs, and decides against telling him about the true reason for his outburst. "They were being assholes," he says simply. The Dean gives a disapproving glare, but sighs and says, "Fair enough. I remember what high school is like. I'll let you off with a warning, but I don't want to hear anything else about you being disruptive again. And cut out the swearing, alright? One more incident and I'll give you a detention." Phil nods, and stands, wanting to get out of the office as fast as possible. "Thanks, Mr.." he looks at the nametag on the desk. "McLain." Mr. McLain just nods curtly, and says "Now, go eat your lunch in the library, I don't want anything else starting again." Phil nods, then leaves the office, grabs his backpack, and rushes out the door.

He makes his way through the silent halls to the library, where he crosses to an empty table in the back corner of the room, surrounded by bookshelves. Phil pulls out his lunch from his backpack - a sandwich, banana, and other assorted snacks - and eats in silence, absently scrolling through social media on his phone. Finally the bell rings, Phil packs up his things, and exits to his 5th period class.

* * *

They watch Phil follow the lunch monitor out of the cafeteria in silence. "Did that just happen?" Nathan asks in disbelief. Dan forces his mouth to close and shakes his head a bit to gather himself. "Um, yeah," he says incredulously. "Why would he do that for you? He's a football player, right?" Emmett asks. "Ok, first, his name is Phil, and he's new this year. And second he's.. kind of my friend," Dan says awkwardly. "Friend.. or _boyfriend_?" Lucas says mischievously, poking Dan in the side. "Hey! Cut it out!" Dan slaps Lucas' hand and his cheeks burn bright red.

"C'mon, he _did_ say he was gay.." Lucas continues. "Yell is more like it," Emmett remarks to Ben. "Guys, I'm serious, stop," Dan says, flashing a glare at each of them around the table. "Alright, just saying - might be something to think about," Lucas says with a smirk before chomping down on a carrot. "Anyway, let me tell you what this guy did in math.." The conversation turns to whatever Lucas is complaining about, but Dan can't help but think about Phil and what he did just minutes before.

* * *

Around halfway through Phil's 6th period class, he realizes he'll have to see Dan after class. _What am I going to say to him? Shit, what's he going to say to me?!_ Phil tries to focus on the dull lesson his health teacher is giving them ( _yeah, drugs are bad for you, I get it)_ but as each minute passes he becomes more aware of the sense of dread growing in his stomach. The second the bell rings, Phil speeds out of the classroom, determined to push off his and Dan's inevitable meetup as long as possible. He takes the long way around to the World History classroom until finally entering it. There Dan is sitting like usual, digging through his backpack to find something. Phil momentarily decides to choose a different seat for the day, but Dan looks up right then and their eyes meet. Dan looks at him in surprise, then gives Phil a tentative smile, however Phil is still zoned out debating on whether or not to take his normal seat his brain forgets to tell his body to smile back. Upon seeing Phil just staring at him like a deer in the headlights, Dan quickly drops his gaze and looks down at his desk, setting down the notebook he had gotten from rummaging around in his backpack.

Phil's brain finally catches up with what happened and he realizes how rude he must've seemed to Dan. He winces, then walks over to Dan and slides into his normal seat. "Uh, hey, Dan," Phil says, cringing inwardly at how awkward he sounded. "Hi, Phil," Dan says, and Phil's relieved to hear Dan sounds as awkward as he did. "I didn't see you in the hallway. Figured you got an in-school detention or something." "Yeah, no, just got held up after class.." Phil gives a lame excuse, and both boys fidget slightly, neither meeting the other's eyes. A couple uncomfortable seconds pass, until Dan finally breaks the silence. "Ok, can we just talk about what happened at lunch? It doesn't have to be this awkward." "Ok, yes, thank you!" Phil laughs a little. "Good, ok, so what happened after the lunch monitor pulled you out?" Dan asks. "Well, I went into the Dean's office, and he yelled at me a little for being 'disruptive in the lunchroom' and swearing, but he let me off with a warning. Something about how Stuart said I was a good kid?" He waves a hand flippantly. "I was surprised at how nice he was about the whole thing." "Yeah, Mr. McLain's a pretty cool guy. I've only talked to him a couple times, but he seems nice. Like he knows what we're going through. He can be pretty strict, though," Dan says.

"Anyway, I also wanted to talk about something else.." Phil starts, but Dan interrupts. "Ok, can we not do this? We're both gay, yes, but we don't need to swap life stories or whatever about how hard our lives are, yeah?" "Oh, I fully agree," Phil says wholeheartedly. "But that's not what I was gonna say. It's just.. I'm sorry if I made things worse. I wasn't really thinking about how this would affect you." "Oh. No, you didn't," Dan reassures him. "So they didn't go give you a hard time or anything?" "No, actually they've been mostly avoiding me. Jack still glared at me every time he saw me, although I'm pretty sure that's for another reason," Dan remarks bitterly, "but Andrew actually _waved_ at me in the hallway." "Hold on, wait, what's the 'other reason' Jack would be glaring at you?" However, the bell rings before Dan can answer Phil's question. _Later,_ Dan mouths, and class begins.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! Shoot, sorry it's been over a month since I updated. Been really busy with hw, and I had an ice skating competition last weekend. But I got sick a couple days ago, so I was able to finish this chapter when I was home from school (yay?). sidenote, god this chapter was long! hope you enjoyed lol. second sidenote, happy thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you guys :). oh wait, isn't thanksgiving only an american holiday? oh well, sorry if you don't live in the us. well, i'm not sorry, cause like trump and stuff. Anyway, couple things. First, sorry I'm throwing a lot of oc's at you. I'm just assigning names to specific people so it's not like: 'Phil, a football player, and another football player meet up. Phil says 'Hi'. the first football player says 'hey'. the second football player says 'what's up?'" ok, that was really bad, but you know what I mean. Also, I'm realizing dnp are kinda ooc in this fic. I mean, it's a hs au so they've got that teen angst going on, and Phil is kinda a rebel ig, idk how that happened but that's how I wrote him. and he swears, cause most hs students do. Lastly, I published a fic a couple weeks ago, and I would really appreciate if you would check it out. it's a phanfic, but I made it a web shows and grey's anatomy x-over only so I could borrow a couple characters and setting from that fandom. you can still read it even if you don't watch grey's, it's really primarily a phanfic. Anyway, thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoyed this update, please favorite if you did, maybe give it a follow if you want to read what happens next, and leave a review telling me what you think! ~lily


	4. Chapter 4

Halfway through Phil's 8th period class, his mind wanders again and he begins to dread football practice after school. The voice of his math teacher, Mr. Mulligan, fades away and Phil falls deep in thought. What were his teammates going to say to him? God, it really seemed he'd made a mess of things defending Dan in the cafeteria, but Phil knew he'd done the right thing. Jack was giving Phil a hard time for being friends with 'Homo Howell' - honestly, did he think Phil would just stand there and let him say those things?

Phil makes up his mind - whatever his teammates said when he arrived for practice, he would stand his ground. If they started making fun of Dan again, he would stand up for his best friend. If they harrassed him for defending Dan in the cafeteria, Phil would stick by what he said. If they started making fun of Phil for being gay.. he had a hard time believing the football team would do that, but they did it to Dan. Phil got the feeling something else was going on.. it seemed like Jack, as the quarterback, was the leader and kind of influenced the team to bully Dan as well. What was Jack's deal with Dan? Well, in any case, if the team tried to mock Phil for being gay, he would repeat what he said in the cafeteria: it wasn't his choice. If they didn't accept it, they weren't his friends.

"Phil!" Mr. Mulligan's clear voice pierces Phil's thoughts. His eyes snap towards the teacher. "Oh, uh, yes?" He asks quickly, wide-eyed and panicky. The class starts snickering. "For the _third_ time, can you tell me how to solve the second example problem?" Mr. Mulligan asks sharply. Phil blushes deep red and looks down at his papers, quickly scanning the half-completed page of notes. "Yes, sorry, one moment.." Phil trails off, turning an even deeper crimson color, if that was possible. He glances at the example problem and hastily tries to figure out what it was asking, then tries to find something to help him out of the half-done notes from before he zoned out. Then he hears a whisper from behind him.

Phil glances up, and slowly looks around. Most of the class was looking at their own packets, trying to figure out the problem themselves. A couple people were on their phones hidden underneath their desks, and Mr. Mulligan was alternating glances towards the clock, the whiteboard, and Phil. Then Phil hears the whisper again, coming from behind him. " _Use theorem 34 to prove the triangles congruent,"_ the voice says. "Um, you can use theorem 34 to prove the triangles congruent," Phil says. Mr. Mulligan widens his eyes in surprise. "Very good, Phil. But next time answer me the first time I ask." The teacher turns to the whiteboard and begins to demonstrate the problem.

Phil turns to take a quick look at the person sitting behind him, and sees a girl with long, sleek, dark red hair, pulled back into a high ponytail, with kind brown eyes staring into his from behind thick glasses. Phil gives her a small smile before turning back around, then opens to a fresh sheet of paper in his notebook and quietly rips the page out. He scribbles a note:

 _Hey. Thanks so much for helping me out._ _I was just kinda zoning out.  
_ _I owe you one.  
_ _You're Paige, right?_

Phil discreetly turns halfway around and places the sheet on the desk behind him. Then, a couple seconds later, he feels a tap on his back, and Phil turns back to take the slip of paper. There, he reads the small, loopy handwriting of the girl's response:

 _Hey. Yep, my name's Paige Losh.  
_ _And it's no problem, I figured you kinda had a lot on your mind.  
_ _I have 4th period lunch as well. My table's right next to the football team's._

Phil sighs and scrawls another note, passing it back while making sure Mr. Mulligan doesn't see.

 _Great. So you had front row seats to my performance._

 _It wasn't bad. I would've given you a standing ovation had it not been cut short._

 _You have Mrs. Jones to thank for that,  
_ _But I'm glad you enjoyed while it lasted._

But just as Phil starts to hand the paper back to Paige, Mr. Mulligan's shouts from the front of the room.

"Phil! Paige? What are you doing?" Phil glances back and sees Paige turn away from him and the teacher to stare straight down at her desk and rest her chin in her sweater paws. "Oh! Um, nothing.." Phil weakly explains. "Hand it here," Mr. Mulligan says sternly, crossing the room to take the paper from Phil. Once he takes the page, he heads back to the front of the room while scanning their writing. "Performance at lunch?" Mr. Mulligan mutters. "Oh, yes, Mrs. Jones mentioned that in the staff lounge.." The class starts snickering again as Phil blushes bright red for another time. Did everyone in the school now know what happened? "Oh! Class, settle down. I apologize, Phil. But both of you see me after class, please. Class! Quiet!"

Finally, the students quiet down, and Mr. Mulligan returns to the lesson. After several more agonizing minutes, caused by Mr. Mulligan's dull lesson and the class' stares they shot back at Phil every once in a while, the bell rings and school is _finally_ over.

The class begins to pack up their things, and Phil looks back to chat to Paige as he shoves notebooks in his backpack. "Hey, Paige?" Paige looks up at him in surprise. "Can I talk to you? After we talk to Mulligan, I mean." Paige just nods before turning back to her things. Phil hastily finishes packing his bag and stands next to his desk, waiting for Paige. Once she stands and slings her backpack over her shoulder, the pair reluctantly walk up to Mr. Mulligan's desk.

As they approach, the teacher glances up from his papers and swivels towards them in his chair. "Phil. Paige. First of all, I never want to see you passing notes in class again. It's childish, distracts you two, and disrupts the class," he reprimands them. Phil and Paige just nod. "Now, Phil, please start paying better attention in class. If you don't know an answer, you can just say that! But I want it to be because you really just can't figure out the problem, not because you weren't taking notes with the rest of the class during my lesson. And Paige, do not help him, either. It doesn't benefit either of you to do that." Paige protests with a weak, "I didn't help him!" But Mr. Mulligan just picks up the sheet of paper with their notes on it. "'Hey. Thanks so much for helping me out. I was just kind of zoning out. I owe you one.'" He deliberately quotes the page. Phil bites his lip and glances over at Paige, who was just staring at the floor again.

"Alright, there's that. Now, I think I've said everything I've needed to. You are free to go," Mr. Mulligan says. "Thanks. Have a good day," Phil says a quick farewell as the two leave the classroom.

"God, Paige, I'm really sorry about that," Phil apologizes as they walk down the hallway. "It's fine, no harm done, right?" Phil turns down a hallway beginning the long walk to his locker, and when Paige follows him, Phil suddenly realizes he doesn't know where her locker is. "Hey, wait, um, where's your locker?" Paige looks at him incredulously. "Literally three lockers down from yours. I'm in your homeroom?" "Oh! Sorry, I guess I never noticed you before," Phil replies weakly. "How could you when you only have eyes for Dan," Paige laughs quietly. "Excuse me?" "What? It's _so_ obvious." "What is?!" Phil exclaims.

"Wait - what? Aren't you guys dating or something?" Paige asks confusedly. " _No!"_ Phil blushes for perhaps the millionth time that day. "We-we're just friends! Best friends. We're like brothers!" Phil exclaims hotly. "Alright.." Paige says, clearly not believing him. "A-anyway, speaking of Dan, can I ask you about what happened at lunch?" Paige gestures for him to continue. "Well, what do you think of me?"

"I wouldn't think you would be worried about what other people thought of you after today," Paige says, "but I thought what you did was really brave. You stand up for what you think is right. I like that." Paige smiles. "Hopefully everyone else thinks that.. do you think everyone knows by now?" "Well, about a third of the entire school was in the cafeteria during 4th period, and if everyone has at least 2 friends and tells them what happened - I know I did - then yeah, I think everyone knows," She gives an apologetic smile.

Phil sighs. "Great," he mutters. Later, they turn into the hallway containing their lockers, and Phil is able to look over everyone else and see Dan's wavy hair at his locker. Phil unknowingly smiles, then turns back to Paige to say goodbye. But Paige is looking at him with a grin and raises her eyebrows at him. Phil then realizes what he's doing and immediately wipes the smile off his face. " _Don't."_ He flashes her a stern glare. Paige tries to contain a giggle. "Alright, bye, Phil," she waves goodbye as Phil goes to his own locker.

"Hey, Dan," Phil greets his friend. Dan turns to him with a smile. "Oh, hi Phil," he says happily. "Why were you so late getting here today?" "Mr. Mulligan kept me and Paige after class. We were passing notes, I wasn't paying attention in class, it was a whole big thing. I don't really want to get into it," Phil says as he opens his locker. "Oh, um, okay. Who's Paige by the way?" Phil chuckles. "I was walking with her on the way here. Apparently she's in our homeroom. I guess you don't have eyes for anyone else either, huh?" "Um.. what?"

"Oh, um, well she joked that I-I only had eyes for you, cause I didn't notice her in homeroom, and you didn't notice her either, so I made the same joke, but i-it's stupid, and I think I'm going to stop talking now.." Phil rambles. "Wait, back up, what did she mean 'you only have eyes for me'?" Dan raises his eyebrows and Phil blushes. Again. "I guess we've been spending too much time together, or only pay attention to each other. She.. she even thought we were dating." Phil suddenly becomes very interested with a notebook in his locker.

But this time it's Dan's turn to blush. "Well, o-obviously we're not.." "That's what I told her! We're just friends. Right?" Phil asks Dan, slightly unsure. "R-right! Friends." "Like brothers." "Exactly."

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Couple little things: first, I just remember learning about triangles in math a while ago so I threw in a random math lesson - I don't even know what theorem 34 is lol. Second, for some reason when I wrote the part with Mulligan quoting their notes I pictured him sounding like the lightbulb guy from Sharkboy and Lavagirl? Don't ask, cause idk. Anyway, I know there wasn't much plot development in this chapter, but the next section of this story was too long to group in with this one, so I just left this part by itself. You won't have to wait as long for the next chapter, though, as I'm on break at the moment and I already have planned what's going to happen next. Speaking of which, this fic is going to be updated about once a month - it's too much pressure to update any quicker. Anyway (again), I hope you guys had a merry christmas and I hope you have a happy new year, or whatever else you celebrate :). I just realized I write really long a/n's, I just want to tell you guys little things, like we're having a conversation. *realizes this is a one way conversation* *looks off into distance like Dan did in-* ok, I thought he did that in a pinof, but after I rewatched literally all of them I couldn't find that bit. if any off you know what I'm talking about, please lmk what video that is because it's driving me crazy. Anyway (again again), don't forget to favorite this fic if you like it, follow if you want to see what happens next, and leave a review telling me what you think! xoxo, ~l


	5. Chapter 5

The hallway steadily empties throughout their conversation, and by the time Dan and Phil establish their relationship only a couple other stragglers are left on the opposite end of the hallway. Phil finally closes his locker, and the two turn to see the nearly empty corridor. "Oh! Guess we talked for a while, huh?" Dan says. "Eh, that was my fault for being late. Oh, wait - shit! I have practice after school today!" Phil pulls his phone from his pocket and turns it on to view the time. "Damn it! I should be in the locker room by now," Phil groans as he puts on his backpack. "What? They should give you more time to get there." "They do - normally after school ends, we have 20 minutes to change and get on the field. I've never had a problem with it before, but then Mulligan kept us late, I was talking to Paige on the way here - from literally across the entire school, may I add - and then I was talking to you." "Damn, well, I won't keep you. I'll talk to you later, alright?" Dan says, and Phil starts walking away from him, calling over his shoulder, "Yep! Bye!" Dan waves goodbye and mutters a faint "see ya".

Phil quickly walks through the school towards the locker room (of course it was on the other side of the school again), and he gets there at the time he should've been at practice already. He hurriedly pushes the door open and strides through the empty room to his locker. The locker room was simply a large, square space, with lockers on every wall. There were benches lining the room as well, so people could sit on the benches as they got ready for practice if they wanted. Phil steps over one of theses benches, unlocks his locker, then strips down and quickly slips into his football uniform. Phil exits through the door on the opposite wall to the one with the main entrance which led outside, almost directly to the practice field. All you had to do was walk a short ways, cross a small street, and you were at the field. Phil carries his bag of equipment (water bottle, helmet, energy bars, etc.) to where the rest of the team had put their things, on the bench the coach was standing near, before heading into the field to warm up.

"Oh, hello, Phil. Decided to join us, have you?" Coach Stuart says as Phil nears the bench, not looking away from the team doing warm up drills. "Hello, I'm very sorry, coach. I got held up after class," Phil says, putting his things on a free area of bench. "Doing what?" "Well, Mr. Mulligan wanted to talk to me after class.." "And that took twenty minutes?" Stuart presses further. "Well, no, but I was.. erm.." Phil trails off. He couldn't exactly tell his coach the reason he was late to practice was because he was talking to his friends, could he?

"That's what I thought. Now go join the rest of your team. And I want five extra laps for being late," Stuart says. "What?! Five extra?!" Phil objects. "Just think of it as one lap for each minute you were late." The coach gives him a glare and Phil hurriedly joins the rest of the team on the field.

Phil falls into line next to two guys he didn't know very well and joins in on the quickness exercise. The two say nothing and just let Phil in. The team continues with their warm-ups (everyone knew the order from summer training), and finally they finish. "Alright, guys, good hustle!" Jack calls from farther down the line. "Let's get some water and Stuart will start practice." The team follows Jack off the field. But not Phil.

Reluctantly, he discreetly walks to the edge of the field and begins his five laps around the track. "Hey, what's Phil doing?" Andrew whispers to Ryan as they walk off. "Hm?" Andrew gestures to Phil jogging around the edge. "Is that Phil? I didn't see him in the locker room," Ryan muses. "Oh, do you think he was late? You know how Stuart always has people run laps when they come after practice starts."

The team arrives at the bench, and each boy grabs their water bottles and take a few sips as Stuart praises them on a successful warm up. "Hey, Coach, what's Phil doing?" Ryan calls once Stuart finishes. The coach rounds on him. "He got here late," Stuart replies icily. Every football player understood, and most look down in sympathy - it seemed everyone had been late at one point and had had to run laps.

The team waits for Phil to run his laps and chat to each other for the next few minutes as Coach Stuart scribbles on his clipboard, making adjustments to what he had planned for practice today. Once Phil is done, he jogs over to the bench with the rest of the team. "I'm done," he says breathlessly to the coach. "Alright, let's start with a new play. Remember, our first game is in 3 weeks! We still have a couple new plays I want us to get down, which shouldn't be an issue given the amount of time we practice, but you still need to focus and give 110 percent. Alright?" The team murmurs in agreement, and Stuart starts explaining the new play.

About a half hour later, the team has learned the new play and drilled it a couple times. "Ok, that's enough," Stuart calls after they finish running through the play again. "It's not great yet, but we have time to get it damn near perfect. Take another water break and I'll let Jack run a few more plays."

A couple minutes later, after their water break, Jack calls the team back onto the field. They take their positions on the line of scrimmage and wait for Jack's cue. Phil, as a wide receiver, takes his place on the very edge of the line. "Alright, guys, let's just run a couple simple plays first," Jack says. "Why don't we start with a flag play. So, Luke will snap me the ball, and our linemen will block the opposing team. Then Phil will run straight down the - oh, I'm sorry, Phil. Is that going to be a problem for you?" He taunts.

"Hey. Not cool, man," Luke says in a low, warning voice. "Alright, sorry!" Jack puts his hands up in mock resignation. "I was just kidding," he says with a smirk in that arrogant, drawling voice, shooting a look at Phil which clearly meant he was not 'just kidding'. Phil glares at him and clenches his jaw, but Andrew catches his eye and gives a little shake of his head. _It's not worth it_ , the movement said. "So, Phil'll run down the field, cut out to the corner, I'll pass to him, and hopefully we'll get a touchdown," Jack finishes. "You all _should_ remember this..."

After they run the play a couple times, Coach Stuart calls Jack over to him. "Ugh, Coach wants me. Wait here," Jack instructs the team, and he jogs over to Stuart. The football players form into their friend groups within the team and begin to chat between themselves. Phil migrates toward Andrew, and Ryan and Erik join them, forming a circle a little ways away from the other groups of people all spread out. "Hey, guys," Phil says as Ryan and Erik join him and Andrew. "Hey. Are you doing ok, Phil?" Erik asks him. "Kind of. It's just - god, Jack can piss me off sometimes!" "Yeah, he can have that affect on people," Erik laughs dryly. "Why do you guys put up with him?" "He's the quarterback," Andrew replies. "We kind of have to do everything he says. But he's really not a bad guy once you get to know him."

"Really?" Phil asks incredulously. "What about what happened today at lunch?" "Okay, you do have a point there..." Ryan agrees. "Speaking of which, we all wanted to talk to you. Well, I did," Andrew starts. "So.. you're really gay?" "Um, yeah." "Ok, just making sure." He shrugs. "I just wanted to tell you, I'm ok with it. Really." Ryan and Erik chime in, agreeing. "Oh, thanks guys. That really means a lot to me, since you're some of my closest friends," Phil says.

"Are the rest of the guys ok with it?" Phil gnaws on his lip. "Well, for the most part. I was talking to some of the guys in the locker room about you - sorry, Phil - and they're.. kind of uncomfortable with the whole thing," Andrew says. "What? Why?" But Jack stops Andrew from replying. "Alright, guys, back to work!" He calls, jogging over. "We'll sort this out in the locker room, after practice," Andrew says, and the boys settle back into their positions to start the play.

"Stuart wants me to run this play with you.."

Soon practice is over, and Coach Stuart calls them in. "Ok, guys, great work today! You all are done for the day. See you tomorrow," the coach dismisses them. The team start to grab their things and head into the locker room. "Oh, wait, Phil. I need to talk to you." Phil stops short, sighs, and reluctantly walks back to Stuart. "Yes, coach?" "I heard about what happened at lunch. Now, you seemed to get on well enough with the team during practice, so I won't pry for details. But if you're ever having real trouble with the rest of the boys, you can talk to me and I'll help sort things out. Remember, we all have to be a team if we want to win games." "Understood, sir." "Good. You're free to go. But - I never want to see you come late again, alright?" Phil nods, then grabs his things and walks across the field and street into the locker room.

The second Phil pushes open the door, he feels very out of place. Everyone just kind of stops what they're doing and looks at him. Phil awkwardly walks to his locker, between Andrew's and Luke's lockers, steps over the bench while tossing his bag on it, and unlocks the locker. Phil then turns back to put his things away, and finds everyone still awkwardly staring at him. "What?" He questions the room.

"Er, Phil? I was talking to the guys before you came, and they had some.. concerns. About... yeah." Andrew says. "What do you mean?" "Well, it's just... we change together nearly every day, and, well.. you.. you're.." Andrew trails off awkwardly. Clearly the team had nominated Andrew to bring up their 'concerns' to Phil. "Gay? You _can_ say it, you know," Phil turns up the side of his mouth slightly. "And.. what? Are you worried I'll be staring at you all while you change?" He glances around the room, his reassuring nature gone. "Cause _b_ _elieve_ me, you have nothing to worry about." Phil turns and starts shoving his equipment roughly into his locker.

"Yeah, probably cause you already have a boyfriend to stare at," a voice mutters. Phil whirls around. "Ex _cuse_ me?" He addresses the room again. Some people look up at him from the benches, but most just continue changing like nothing happened. It seemed as if they were trying not to look at anyone lest their glances give away who said it.

"First, _no_ , it's because you all are my friends, and there's no way in _hell_ I would ever be attracted to one of you - no offense - and, second, if you're talking about Dan, you couldn't be more wrong," Phil says hotly, continuing to shove things in his locker. "I mean, sure, we're very close, and I feel like I can talk to him about anything.. not to mention he's very attractive.. with his sweet brown eyes and the way his hair falls in soft curls-" Phil stops speaking abruptly at the look Andrew gives him. "But we're definitely not dating!" He quickly exclaims. "Whatever you say, man.."

A/N: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had to do some research on football to write this update (i'm sure you're all very surprised to hear i know nothing about football) and damn, football is confusing! I was surprised at how much strategy goes into the game. It's _not_ actually just an over-glorified game of fetch. Well, it is, but that's beside the point. Also, i tried to keep their practice as simple as possible and use mostly common knowledge of the game, so hopefully you understood what was going on. Anyway, I hope you all are having a good break! I go back to school next week and i'm NOT READY. I'm really glad I finished this chapter though - what has it been, a little over a week since I published the last one? Yay me :D. Omg I just got suite life of zach and cody flashbacks. london tipton anyone? no? ok. anyway, hope you liked this chapter! remember to follow, favorite, and review! xoxo, ~l


	6. Chapter 6

After Phil finishes getting changed into his regular clothes, he begins to pack away his things. "Hey, Phil, you almost done?" Andrew asks him. Phil looks up to see Andrew standing by his locker, waiting for him. "Oh, yeah, one sec.." Phil zips up his football bag and shoves it into his locker, along with his uniform, then slings his schoolbag over his shoulders and stands. The two walk together across the room in silence. "Bye, guys," Phil mutters with a half-hearted wave to the rest of the team, who were not even halfway done changing, as he and Andrew leave.

"So.. how are you?" Andrew asks awkwardly. Phil looks at him warily. "Why do you sound so weird?" Andrew sighs. "Sorry. Just.. what I said in the locker room. The guys put me up to it, I'm sorry." "It's fine. I wasn't expecting everyone to just be alright with it, it was my fault for getting so worked up today. I just want this whole thing to be over with. It's been a long day," Phil says. "Yeah, I can imagine.." The two walk through the halls in a comfortable silence. It never ceased to amaze Phil after these practices how, in just a couple hours, the school went from holding thousands of noisy kids and restless teachers, to having empty halls. Quiet classrooms. It seemed the school needed to unwind after a busy day, and take a long bubble bath, only to be disturbed by the footsteps of a couple football players.

"Hey, Andrew? Can I talk to you about something?" Phil starts. "Shoot." "How did this whole thing with Dan start?" "Oh. Well, man, I can't really remember.." Andrew thinks for a couple moments. "Well, it all started last year, when we were all sophomores. Well, most of us. The seniors on our team aren't really involved with Dan. It's just us juniors. Cause last year, when we were sophomores, we were all on the sophomore team together, and now we're all on varsity. Anyway.. this school is pretty small for a high school. Everyone knows, or at least knows of, everyone. Dan.. kept to himself. He had his little group of friends - still does, I think - I didn't know him that well. No one on our team did. A couple months into the year, it just kinda spread around that he was gay. I don't even remember who told me; it wasn't a big deal. Everyone was fine with it.

"Then a couple weeks later or so, I think.. I think it was Jack who started saying rude things about Dan. Not directly, just kind of offhand comments in the locker room. Homophobic shit, you know? No one on the team said anything. We just kind of went along with it. He was the quarterback, and we all liked him. Nobody wanted to be the one to speak against him. Eventually.. it just kind of snowballed. We repeated what Jack had said in the locker room, and other people at school started spreading the same shit. I remember the first time Jack said those things to Dan in front of us. Then we all just accepted that was how things were."

After a couple seconds of silence, Phil looks up and realizes Andrew isn't next to him anymore. He turns around in the hallway and sees Andrew stopped a few feet back, staring at the floor. "Andrew?" Phil prompts, full of concern. Then Andrew looks up, eyes glistening. "Woah, Andrew? You alright?" Phil closes the gap between them. "No, not really." Andrew's voice cracks. "Why did I ever think that was okay? I didn't know Dan - I still don't! We probably would've kept doing it if you hadn't moved here. I'm not even homophobic!" He yells, almost panicked. "Hey, it's okay, man." Phil lightly nudges Andrew's shoulder, very unsure of what to do in this situation. "I know you're not. And I'm sure the rest of the team isn't either."

"And yet we still.. _bullied_ Dan. You're right about that. I was there," Andrew says. "Speaking of which, what _did_ you guys do?" Phil asks, and now that Andrew's relatively calm again, they keep walking through the school. "Not _awful_ stuff. We called him names - 'Homo Howell', teased him about being gay. For being different. I know people would push him around in the halls. On the team, at least. Other students would leave him alone. But it was still bullying. And I'm sure it was awful for him." The two reach the front doors, and push through them into the parking lot.

"Does Dan know about this?" Phil asks as they walk to their cars in the student section of the lot. "About what?" "That you never meant any of it - it was essentially Jack who started everything, and you all went along with it." "I don't think so.. Do you think I could talk to him? Apologize?" Andrew looks to Phil as they come to a stop in front of their cars. "I mean, I guess so. Whatever you want to do. Do you have any classes with him?" "Damn, no, I don't. Well.. we have lunch together."

Phil sighs. "Alright. I don't really want to sit with the team tomorrow, anyway. Do you want me to see if we can sit at his table tomorrow?" Suddenly Andrew starts to fidget. "I.. I mean.." Phil sighs again. "This was your idea. But if you don't want to, I'll just sit with him by myself." "No, I want to apologize. Really. And get to know him. See what all the fuss is about," Andrew says with a smirk. Phil gapes at him. "What is that supposed to mean?!" "Nothing, nothing. See you tomorrow, Philly," Andrew says as he pulls out his keys and unlocks his car, a Toyota Minivan. Phil takes a deep breath before turning and unlocking his pickup truck.

 _'See what all the fuss is about',_ Phil thinks in annoyance. It's not like Phil ever talked about Dan to Andrew. Was it that noticeable how much Phil liked the brunette? _As a friend_ , Phil thinks forcefully. _Nothing more. It can't be anything more_ _.._ And Phil drives home with thoughts of Dan still turning in his head.

* * *

After a short car ride, only about 10 minutes, filled with Phil jamming out to his car radio, he pulls into the driveway of his house. The house was medium sized, made of brick, and about as normal as any other house was. Phil opens the garage door and parks the car inside, next to his mom's minivan. After gathering up his things, Phil enters the house. He kicks his shoes off and walks into the kitchen. "Mom!" He calls. A small woman, surprisingly short for the height of her child, comes around the corner. "Phil! How was practice? How was school?" She inquires. "Fine, and fine," Phil sighs, tossing his bag on the kitchen counter.

Phil's mom furrows her brow. "Are you sure? What did you do today?" She shoots a look at Phil while moving to check on a simmering pot on the stove. "Stuff, mom! And yes, I'm fine!" He raises his voice and yanks off his jacket. Mrs. Lester turns and raises her eyebrows at him. "Sorry. I'm just tired. Dinner almost ready?" "Just about."

A few minutes later, the pair are sitting at the kitchen table, two steaming bowls of soup set in front of them. "So, what _did_ you do today?" "Stuff, mom, like I told you," Phil sighs and takes a large mouthful of soup. "Nothing interesting? Nothing at all? How was lunch? How's your football team?" Phil's mom leans closer towards him. Phil gulps. "Everything was fine..." He trails off suspiciously. "Really? Well, I got an interesting phone call from a certain Mr. Stuart. He seems to have a different take on how your day went."

Phil groans. "He called you? Really?" "Yes, Phillip, he called me," Mrs. Lester snaps. "Seriously? You were yelling at your teammates, and you _swore_ in front of the Dean? I know it's hard getting adjusted to a new school, but this is over the line! You've never done anything like this before. Why all the fuss?" She suddenly softens. "I don't want to talk about it," Phil mumbles. "Is it something I need to know about?" She asks gently, reaching out a hand to touch Phil's arm. "No, mom. Everything's fine." He repeats firmly. Then suddenly, he stands up. "I'm going to my room." Phil's mom sighs. He's a teenager. They get emotional sometimes, but she knew Phil would talk to her if he really needed to. "Alright," she says quietly. "Don't forget to do your homework." Phil nods, then heads up to his room, grabbing his backpack on the way. His bowl of soup lays, barely touched, on the table.

* * *

Phil shuts his bedroom door loudly, not slamming it, but not just closing it, either. Phil had had enough of this. Just.. the entire day. He just wanted it to be over. Phil lets his backpack slide off his shoulder onto the floor, and he flops onto his bed, pulling out his phone and checking it for the first time since school ended. About a million notifications pop up on his lockscreen - snapchats, texts from his groupchats, notifications for school.. Phil sighs and starts going through them.

First he checks his friend/football team group chat. After scanning the chat, Phil checks all his other messages and then opens snapchat. He goes through about 30-something snaps, mostly just streaks and stupid selfies his friends sent him. He saves Dan's message for last.

 _Dan: sup philly. how was your practice?_

Phil grins, and quickly types out a response:

 _Phil: first off, dont call me that DANNY. second, it was boring af_

A few moments after Phil hits 'send' and exits the chat, his phone buzzes and another notification from Dan pops up.

 _Dan: sorry, phillip. / i would imagine football practices are boring. what do you even do the entire time?_

 _Phil: it's ok, daniel. and we warmup, do exercises, then basically run plays the rest of the time. supa boring. and coach gave me a hard time for being late, so.._

 _Dan: ooh, sorry about that. hope it wasn't my fault you were late... anyone else give you a hard time :/_

 _Phil: no, definitely not your fault. all on me. and no, no one else gave me a hard time.. speaking of which, i really don't want to sit with the team tomorrow. mind if i join you guys at lunch?_

 _Dan: ofc i dont mind. i'm sure my friends will be cool with it too._

 _Phil: ok, thanks.. one more thing._

 _Dan: yeah?_

 _Phil: don't be mad._

 _Dan: ..._

 _Phil: andrew wants to sit with you guys too._

 _Dan: andrew. one of the guys on the football team._

 _Phil: ..yeah._

 _Dan: why_

 _Phil: he wants to apologize. for last year, and everything. and get to know you._

 _Dan: tf?_

 _Phil: that's what he said. i was talking to him after practice and he seemed sincere. really._

 _Dan: i mean, it's fine i guess. just a bit weird. though now that i think about it he wasn't really part of the problem._

 _Phil: yeah. it seems like jack and his friends were the main problem. andrew was never friends with him. also, what the hell happened between you and jack?_

 _Dan: that's between me and him_

 _Phil: ..alright_

 _Dan: listen, i have to go eat dinner._

 _Phil: aight, i have hw to do too._

 _Dan: bye_

 _Phil: see ya._

Phil sighs, sends Andrew a message that Dan was okay with it, and closes the app. At least Dan agreed for him and Andrew to sit with him. But there was definitely something Dan wasn't telling him about Jack. Something important. What happened between the two weeks the team found out Dan was gay and Jack started spreading rude things about Dan? Phil shakes it off. Dan would tell him eventually.. wouldn't he? _I hope so. I really like him, and I want him to be able to trust me,_ Phil thinks. Then he realizes what he just said. _No, I just want to know more about what happened_ , he resolves firmly. Phil takes a deep breath, and rolls off his bed. He sits at his desk, then reluctantly begins to do homework.

A/N: Hey guys! hope you enjoyed this chapter. don't forget to review, follow, and favorite if you want to! it really means a lot to me whenever you do, so thank you if you've already done any of those things. xoxo, ~l


	7. Chapter 7

The next day, Dan and Phil simultaneously sit at their desks at the beginning of school right as the bell rings. "Good morning, class! Happy Friday!" Mr. Thompson calls as he walks to the front of the room. "Let's jump right in, shall we?" He begins taking attendance and the rest of the class sits in silence until he's done. "Great, thank you, everyone. See you on Monday!" Mr. Thompson moves to sit at his own desk in the corner, several feet behind Dan and Phil's table.

"Ugh, I am so ready for the weekend," Phil says, turning to Dan. "Yeah, me too," Dan replies. "Anyway, back to what we were talking about. We still on for lunch?"

"Yeah, I think so. But believe me, Dan, you have nothing to worry about. Andrew's a good guy, and he wants to apologize." "Ok.. I still just don't understand _why_. He had the entire last year to apologize, or, I don't know, maybe just _not_ make fun of me," Dan says in annoyance.

"I'll let him explain himself at lunch. And as for stopping everything _now_ , he said it had something to do with me moving here," Phil offers. Dan quips, "My knight in shining armor," with a little grin and raised eyebrows. But then he softens, and Dan just gazes up into Phil's eyes.

Phil returns the gaze, looking down into Dan's soft eyes, obscured slightly by his fringe, when someone sits down roughly next to him. "Oh, I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" Phil breaks the gaze and wildly turns to his left to see Paige smirking at him. "What?!" He asks with wide eyes. "Am I interrupting something?" She looks back and forth between the two, still smirking.

" _No_ ,"Phil says, reaching up to adjust his fringe. "This is a perfectly fine time." He adjusts his fringe again. "Alright. Well, I was just coming back to say hi," Paige smiles. "Hi," Dan speaks up. "I'm Dan. I don't think we've met before." "No, we haven't. Though I've been in this class the whole time," she mutters.

" _Anyway.._ wait, what happened to the girl who was sitting here before?" Phil gestures to the seat Paige was now sitting in. "You mean Brooke? And seriously? She's been out sick the past few days. Did you _not_ notice?" Paige gives them a look. "Of course I did..." Phil trails off, blushing, and Dan looks away, suddenly very interested in the tabletop.

Thankfully, they're saved by the bell. Paige stands, calling over a goodbye as she leaves, and Dan and Phil pack up with the rest of the class. "See you at lunch," Phil says. "Yep, see you."

* * *

Phil enters his Chemistry classroom and sits in the corner next to Peyton, who was sitting on her phone waiting for class to start. "Sup, Peyton," Phil says as he slides into the seat. At Phil's presence, Peyton looks up in surprise and immediately sets her phone down on the table, turning towards him. "Philip... Middle-Name Lester!" Peyton exclaims. Phil laughs at that. "Oh my god, what?" He mimics her shrill tone. "You stop that! Now, we have to talk about what happened yesterday." "First of all, stop being so loud. Second, what about yesterday?" "Um, I don't know, _everything_!" She cries. Phil gives her a look, and she cringes slightly. "Sorry. First, I'm glad you're being open about who you are. Not exactly the ideal way to go about it, but..." Phil gives her another look. "Ok, ok, sorry. Second, how could you not tell me about Dan?!" Peyton exclaims.

"Peyton!" Phil hisses, glancing around the room, still somewhat empty, however. "And what about Dan?" At this, Peyton's frantic excitement drops. "Aren't.. aren't you guys dating?" Phil widens his eyes. " _No,"_ He says forcefully, glancing away and adjusting the hem of his t-shirt. "Oh. Sorry, I just assumed.. cause you're both gay, and you seem to really like him..." Phil sees Peyton turn away in the sides of his vision. "It's fine. You're not the first one to make that mistake, anyway.."

Peyton visibly brightens at that. "Oh, ok!" Phil rolls his eyes but smiles at Peyton's perky personality. But she softens again. "But, Phil.. doesn't that tell you something about your relationship?" She prompts him gently. "I mean, I do like him.. a lot.." "Aw, I knew it!" "..But he doesn't like me like that," Phil finishes awkwardly. "Are you sure?"

Suddenly, the bell rings and the rest of the students begin to take their seats, and the teacher cuts Phil off from responding. "Alright, class, take out your notes, we'll continue where we left off yesterday!" Mr. O'Brien calls from the front of the room. "Just think about it," Peyton says quietly. "Please."

* * *

Finally, 3rd period ends, but somehow, it's still too soon. "Ready for lunch?" Andrew asks Phil as they approach each other after class. "Yeah." The two walk together down the hall, but when they reach the spot they normally turned at to meet the others, Phil slows and touches Andrew's shoulder. "Can.. can we not walk with Jack and the others today?" Andrew smiles and nods reassuringly, and they continue walking down the hallway to the cafeteria.

Andrew and Phil reach the lunchroom a few minutes before they normally would've, and, surprisingly, Jack and the rest of the team are already there. _He must've been 'talking to Coach Stuart' again,_ Phil thinks sarcastically. He knew Jack just didn't want to be near him. Phil and Andrew hesitate in the aisle for a moment. The cafeteria was L-shaped, and a walkway split the larger square and the smaller square, with places to buy food scattered along the walls and in the walkway. The football team's table was almost directly in the center of the large square, of course, and Dan's table was just across the walkway in the corner of the small square. Andrew and Phil look back and forth between the team's table and Dan's before heading over to join Dan and his friends. Phil had to admit, he quite enjoyed seeing the team's faces when they saw where he was sitting.

"Hey, Dan," Phil says as he and Andrew arrive at the table. "Can we sit?" Dan hurriedly gestures for his friends to make room, leaving two open spots between him and Emmett. Phil takes the spot next to Dan, and Andrew scoots in next to Emmett. Dan's friends just stare at the two football players, unsure of what to do. "Um, guys," Dan addresses his friends, "This is Phil and Andrew. Phil, Andrew, meet Lucas, Nathan, Ben, and Emmett." He points them out around the table. "Hey. Nice to finally meet you guys," Phil says with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Mmhm," Lucas crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows at the two. " _Lucas_ ," Dan hisses. Lucas leans in close to Dan and whispers back in his ear, "What? Do you want me to like your boyfriend?" He wiggles his eyebrows at Dan. "I swear to God if you don't shut your fucking mouth _right_ now.." Lucas just smirks and leans back away from Dan, looking around the table. It isn't until he sees Phil's bright red cheeks he and Dan realize everyone heard what they were whispering about.

"Anyway," Andrew says, pointedly ignoring what just happened, "I'll get to the reason I'm here. Dan, I'm really sorry for everything that happened last year. And, mostly thanks to Phil here, it's not going to happen again." "Thanks," Dan says sincerely, however, he takes a bite of sandwich so he doesn't have to say anything else. Silence falls over the table, and for a few awkward seconds the everyone just eats their lunch quietly.

Finally, Nathan speaks up. "So, how's the football season going?" Andrew (and Phil.. but mostly Andrew) talk about how they've all been working really hard and how everyone's feeling good about the first football game of the season next weekend. "Sorry I've been going on about football. Uh, Dan, what do you like to do?" Andrew inquires.

Dan reddens slightly at the sudden attention. "Er, well, I'm really into video games. And I like to play piano. All of us," he gestures to his friends, "are actually in a band together." "Oh, woah, that's pretty cool! I've never known anyone who actually had a band. What do you all play?" Lucas chimes in and explains what everyone does in the band (he plays bass, Nathan vocals, Emmett vocals and guitar, and Ben plays drums). "And you said you're the keyboardist?" Andrew asks Dan. "Yeah, I am. I play classical piano too, though."

"Oh, that's right," Phil says. "Didn't you say a couple days ago I could take lessons with you?" "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that!" Suddenly, it seems like the two boys become trapped in their own little bubble, and they whisper back and forth to each other about a time, Dan's address, how excited Phil was, etc. etc.

"Are they always like this?" Andrew asks the rest of the table incredulously. "Well, this is the first time Phil has sat with us," Emmett says quietly, "but yeah, pretty much. Whenever Dan talks about Phil, whenever he's in the same _room_ as Phil.." Andrew laughs. "Yeah, that's about the same with Philly."

"What's about the same with me? And what have I told you about calling me that?" Phil rejoins the conversation as the he and Dan had finished theirs about Phil's piano lesson (it was going to be tomorrow afternoon at Dan's house). "Sorry, _Philly_ , and nothing," he dismisses Phil's questions. "Alright..." Phil trails off suspiciously, and the seven boys settle into a surprisingly easy conversation for the rest of the lunch period.

* * *

The next day, Phil sleeps in until about 11am, then rolls out of bed and grabs his phone, groggily stumbling downstairs. He checks all his notifications, then begins to watch Netflix while he eats his breakfast/lunch. Phil knows his mom was already at work, and would be for the rest of the day. Phil then begins to get ready for his piano lesson with Dan at 1 o'clock. He anxiously rummages through his closet for an outfit, before eventually deciding on a casual t-shirt and jeans. _Why are you getting so nervous? This isn't a date or anything.._

Once he's dressed, Phil glances at the clock again. It still only read 12pm, so Phil flops onto his bed and restlessly starts watching another show on Netflix. He gets through another 2 episodes of Friends before deciding it was fine to leave, so Phil slowly goes downstairs, puts on his shoes and jacket, then starts his car.

Phil puts the directions to the address Dan gave him into his phone GPS and starts the 10 minute drive to the house, singing along loudly to his phone's playlist blasting through the car's speakers. Soon he arrives at Dan's house. Easily the largest one on the block, it was painted a pristine white. The exterior looked perfect, and the lawn was neat and expertly trimmed. It seemed the total opposite of Dan, who loved black, and, judging from his locker, was messy and disorganized. Still unsure if it was the right house, Phil cuts the engine and walks up the driveway. He checks his phone before knocking - 1pm on the dot.

Seconds after Phil knocks on the door, it opens and Dan welcomes Phil inside. "Right on time," he says, raising his eyebrows. "I like to be on time," Phil says smoothly, mimicking Dan's raised eyebrows. "Should I take off my shoes and coat?" "You can leave them by the door, and I could take your jacket, if you like." "Sure." Phil slips off his sneakers and hands the coat over to Dan.

"Nice place," Phil comments on the large front hall as he follows Dan deeper into the house. Everything on the interior was perfect as well. Wall decorations perfectly straight, pictures on shelves perfectly aligned. Not a speck of dirt or dust anywhere. "Uh, thanks," Dan replies absently as he drapes Phil's jacket over a couch in the living room, and Phil peers at the pictures of Dan and an older woman, Dan's mom, he supposed, decorating the room.

"Do you want me to show you around?" Dan asks, turning to face Phil, who was still looking at the pictures. Phil straightens, and he suddenly feels like he was caught doing something he shouldn't. "That's me and my mom on vacation around 5 years ago," Dan explains the photograph Phil had been looking at. "Ah, ok. You look a lot different now," Phil laughs. "Don't even remind me about that. I was trying to look like a 'surfer', ok?" Phil laughs again. "Anyway, do you want to see the rest of the place?" Phil nods, and Dan starts his grand tour.

Dan leads Phil into the kitchen, dining room, sunroom, and briefly into the laundry room before showing Phil into a large, open space next to the front hall containing a beautiful grand piano. "Oh, wow," Phil breathes as he runs a hand down the sleek black body. "This is where I practice my classical piano," Dan mutters, embarrassed. "Well, when my mom's not home. She gets annoyed at how loud it is, so normally I practice on the keyboard up in my room."

"Are we going to have our lesson here?" Phil asks hopefully. "If you want to. My mom's not home right now, so she wouldn't mind. All my lesson books are up in my room, though, so I'd have to go get them." "Oh, that's fine then. We could go upstairs," Phil says, however, slightly less enthused. "No, no, I could go get them. I can see how much you want to play this piano. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Dan says with a grin. "Yeah," Phil breathes, and Dan goes upstairs to get the piano books.

A minute later, Dan returns with beginner piano books in hand. Phil was already sitting on the bench in front of the piano, so Dan places a book on the music rack, setting the others on the floor, and slips onto the bench next to Phil. Surprised at the sudden closeness of Dan, Phil gasps slightly and moves away instinctively. Dan recoils at Phil's reaction. "Sorry, I, um.. didn't mean to startle you. I could get a chair from the kitchen, if you want.." Dan trails off, not meeting Phil's eyes. "No, sorry, this is fine." Phil smiles in an attempt to get past the awkward situation.

"Ok," Dan starts. "So how much do you know about reading music?" "Not much," Phil laughs. Dan teaches Phil how to read music, what all the different symbols and notes mean. Once Phil has the basic principle of it all, Dan begins to teach how the notes correlate to the keys on the piano. "Do you want to try a song?" Dan asks later. "Really? You think I'm ready?" Phil responds. "Sure!" Dan flips the pages of the books to probably the most basic piano song ever, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They go through the notes and rhythms, until finally Phil lays his hands on the keys. "Er, no, you'd want to put your fingers here.." Dan begins to adjust Phil's hand so his fingers lay onto the right keys. Phil's breath hitches at the sudden contact, and he allows Dan to move his fingers, staring at their hands while looking at Dan in the sides of his vision.

"Ok, you want to give it a go?" Dan asks. "Yep." Phil takes a deep breath, and he begins to slowly tap out the tune. He gets through it with minor mistakes, and once he finishes Dan praises him, "Wow! That was pretty good, you're a natural. Just have to watch these notes here, and get it a bit faster," he says, marking the music with a pencil. "Thanks!" Phil smiles, his entire face lighting up. "Now, it's already been about an hour, so we can be done for the day if you want," Dan says. "Really? Well, time flies when you're having fun, right?" Dan laughs at that. "Yeah, I guess so."

"We could hang out for a bit more, I know you said you like video games too. Unless you have somewhere to be, I don't want to keep you," Dan says. Phil glances at his phone. "Yeah, sorry, I actually do have somewhere to be," Phil says sadly. "Ok, that's fine. Listen, my students usually come for lessons every week. You could do that too, if you want to keep learning." "Yeah, I would love to, this was great! You're actually a really good teacher. Does the same time next week work?" Phil suggests. "Yeah, that's perfect." They continue to chat as Phil puts on his coat and shoes. "Thanks again, I had a good time," Phil smiles. "Of course. See you later." "Bye!"

A/N: Hey guys! hope you enjoyed this chapter. don't forget to fav/follow if you like it and want to see what happens next, and please review! it's really what keeps writers going, seeing what people think of our work. xoxo, ~l


	8. Chapter 8

The days continue to pass and Dan and Phil settle into a daily routine. They have first period together, and Paige begins to join them in the mornings, sitting next to Phil in Brooke's empty seat. Eventually Brooke returns, but she just sits in Paige's old seat now. It's not like Dan and Phil notice anyway. Phil and Andrew also begin to sit with Dan and his friends at lunch every day, to many people's surprise (including Dan, his friends, the football team.. okay, to everyone's surprise). Paige is also in Dan and Phil's World History class, and she starts to sit with them during that too. However, mainly all this does is give Paige an opportunity to tease Phil again about how it's like he and Dan are dating.

When Paige brings that up again, Phil confesses to her how he actually does really like Dan. In, you know, _th_ _at_ way. "But he doesn't like me back! So please, _please_ , don't say anything about it again," Phil begs her. However, what he doesn't know is Dan feels the same way, and thinks the same thing.

Over the next few weeks, too many things happen that should've clued the boys in about their feelings for each other. It seemed their friends were the only ones that noticed, but they respected Dan and Phil's business, so they didn't say anything. But honestly, it took all of Paige and Andrew's willpower to not say something. Really, how did Dan and Phil not realize how the other felt sooner?

* * *

The next week, the school calls an assembly to talk about homecoming festivities - the homecoming game, the homecoming dance (which wasn't for another few weeks), and staying safe through the events. It's the end of the day, and all of the periods have been cut short to fit the assembly in. Phil and Paige are sitting in their 8th period math class waiting for the bell to ring so they can be done with school and get hyped for the weekend.

With a sigh, Phil drops his head back and looks at the ceiling in exasperation, glancing at the clock again when he straightens his head. Only a few more minutes, thank god. But Phil forces himself to listen to Mr. Mulligan until the bell rings. The class erupts into chatter and Phil looks back at Paige when he begins to stuff his bag full of schoolwork. "You excited for the assembly?" He asks her. "You know it," Paige replies with a grin.

Phil feels a buzz in his pocket, and pulls out his phone to see a snapchat from Dan. He quickly unlocks his phone and opens it. _hey youre going to the assembly right?_ Dan had messaged him. _yeah, are you?_ Phil replies.

Dan: _yeah_. _you want to maybe sit together?_

Phil smiles after reading Dan's request, and Paige cranes her neck to look at Phil's phone. "Why are you smiling? What are you looking at?" She pries.

"Oh, uh, Dan's asking if we want to sit with him during the assembly. That okay?" Phil asks her hopefully. Paige just rolls her eyes. "Yes, that's fine. Let's go sit with your - er, friend." She refrains from saying 'boyfriend' just in time and gives Phil a nervous smile. But Phil doesn't even notice Paige's slip-up, as he's busy typing out a reply to Dan: _yeah, ofc. is it alright if paige sits with us too? and how bout we meet in the cafe first._

Dan: _k,_ _see you in a bit_

"Alright, let's go," Phil says to Paige, and they leave the classroom to go to the cafeteria. A few minutes later, the two walk in and Phil immediately finds Dan's curly head of soft, brown hair among a few of his friends. He begins to walk straight towards Dan, and Paige just rolls her eyes again and follows him. "Hey, Dan! Nathan, Lucas," He greets the group.

"Oh, hey, Phil!" Dan turns and smiles at Phil. "Alright, you guys ready?" He turns to Nathan and Lucas.

"Er, yeah. Sorry, but who are you?" Lucas asks Paige.

"Oh, I'm Paige. My friends aren't going to the assembly, so I'm tagging along with Phil. I'm his BFF, obviously; you guys are just gonna have to deal with me sitting with you," She says, turning up one side of her mouth. Lucas laughs. "Alright, fine with me."

"Let's go."

The group of friends leave the cafeteria for the gym, and Dan and Phil fall into step next to each other in front of the rest of the group, and begin chatting without a second thought to the rest of their friends. Paige looks at Nathan and Lucas, shoots a glance at Dan and Phil, then looks back at Nathan and Lucas. The two boys just grin knowingly, and Nathan offers up a helpless gesture. "You see it too, right?" Paige asks. "Oh, I ship it more than a UPS driver," Lucas says. A burst of laughter escapes Paige's mouth, and she immediately claps a hand over her mouth, cheeks burning up. Once she's composed herself, Paige says, "Oh my god, that's amazing. And _same."_

Soon the group arrives at the gym. Phil stops short when he walks in the gym, and the group stops with him. So many students are filling the stands, buzzing around them, or walking around on the floor preparing for the assembly. Banners and balloons decorate the walls, rows of chairs are set up on a platform, and a huge mat lays out in front of them where cheerleaders are getting ready for a performance. "Wow," Phil breathes.

"Kind of overwhelming, isn't it?" Nathan says.

"Uh, yeah."

"You'll get used to it." Dan smiles. "Alright, where should we go? There?"

The group of friends follow Dan around the mat, snaking their way through pods of cheerleaders and other students, until they reach an open spot on the bleachers. "Okay, go ahead." Dan lets Nathan and Lucas file in first, then he follows, and Phil and Paige sit down after them. "So, what exactly is going on?" Phil asks Dan.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot you're new this year. Uh, well, the cheerleaders normally do a performance, the principal talks about important information for the game and the dance, and then they announce the homecoming court. That's basically it, it's really fun though," Dan explains.

"Oh, alright. It's crazy to think the homecoming game is tomorrow." Phil lets out a slow breath.

"You nervous?"

"Yeah, I guess. Everyone's been talking about the dance I kind of forgot the game was coming up so quick. But the dance isn't for a couple weeks right?"

"Wait, what? I thought it was next weekend?" Paige asks as she joins their conversation.

"No, they had to move it cause the school is hosting some math thing next weekend."

"Weird, okay. Speaking of the dance, are either of you going?" Paige asks. The two boys look at each other. "I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," Phil says.

"I might go with some friends," Dan says, looking over at Nathan and Lucas. "Sorry, what?" Nathan asks as he notices Dan's look.

"Homecoming."

"Oh, yeah, we might go. I don't know," Nathan shrugs. Suddenly a girl's voice is projected through the speakers around the gym, and everyone quiets down as the assembly starts. The boys and Paige aren't able to talk much more as they are busy watching the assembly. First, there was a very impressive performance by the varsity cheerleading squad, and Phil is amazed from having never seen them perform before. "Oh my god, they're so good!" Phil exclaims during the performance.

"I know, right? They're so flexible, too," Paige says.

"Just look at Dorian," Dan says. Dan and Phil both stare at Dorian, the only guy on the squad, as he performs several flips across the mats. Then the two look at each other, as if to point him out to each other. Both realize they were staring at the, admittedly quite attractive, boy and quickly look away, cheeks heating up. Later, everything happens exactly like Dan says, they talk about the game and the dance, safety, and finally announce the homecoming court and choose the king and queen.

"Happy Homecoming, everyone!" The homecoming queen addresses her royal subjects, and the assembly is finally over. "That was pretty fun, I kinda like 'school spirit-y' stuff," Phil comments as they stand.

"Yeah? Well maybe you should come to the dance with me," Paige says.

"Go to the dance with you? _I'm gay_ , Paige."

Paige swats Phil's arm as they start to walk down the bleachers. "Oh, shut up, I meant as friends," she says, rolling her eyes. Phil notices she does that quite a lot.

"Alright, well, I have to get to football practice," Phil sighs. He holds up his phone to the group to show the time. "Oh, uh, okay. See you later," Dan says. Phil can't help but notice he looks slightly disappointed. He opens his mouth to ask Dan about it, but stops himself at the last minute and just mutters a quick goodbye instead. Phil strides out of the gym, casting a last glance behind him to see Dan still staring after him. Phil waves a little towards Dan, and he can't tell for sure, but he thinks Dan starts to blush a little as he waves back. _He's just too cute, it's not fair_. Phil is left smiling all the way to the locker room.

* * *

That night, Phil messages Dan to cancel their piano lesson for the next day, cause they couldn't have one as Phil had his game. But then Dan and Phil get to talking, and Phil asks him: _a_ _re you coming to the game tomorrow?_

Dan replies: _yeah_ , _me and my friends are going to be there. good luck! and tell andrew good luck too :)_

Phil smiles. He was really glad Dan and Andrew were starting to become friends. He types out a hasty reply: _cool. i'll look for you after the game. and thanks, i'll pass along the message to andrew too._ Phil sends a quick message to Andrew saying Dan wished them good luck at the game tomorrow, and returns to his conversation with Dan.

They continue to talk for almost a half hour more, until Phil notices the time.

Phil: _hey_ , _it's getting late and coach wants us to get a good nights sleep for the game tomorrow, so i should probably go :/_

Dan: _oh. alright, gn_

Phil: _gn_

Phil sighs, then plugs his phone into his charger and climbs into bed. He's barely able to sleep with the jitters of the first football game racking his brain. He didn't want to let his teammates down, especially being new this year, and now he had to impress Dan? _No, you don't have to impress Dan, he's your best friend! There's no need to show off for him!_ Phil debates messaging Dan again for something to occupy his mind, but decides against it. They'd already said good night, he didn't want to sound needy. _I don't want to not sound needy!_ Phil interrupts his thoughts. _He's my best friend. He would understand if I can't sleep._ And yet, Phil doesn't text Dan again. It isn't till much later, after much tossing and turning, that Phil falls asleep.

In the morning Phil wakes from a light sleep, much earlier than he should have gotten up. Phil does the math quickly and realizes he only got about 6 hours. After trying to fall back asleep for several minutes, he eventually just gets out of bed. The morning passes like normal; he eats breakfast and watches some Netflix until his mom tells him to be more productive. Sighing, Phil heads back upstairs and reluctantly begins to do his homework.

Hours later, filled with homework, eating snacks, more Netflix, and... other internet activities, it's early afternoon and Phil starts to get ready for the big football game. The game was to start around 7 o'clock that night, but they had to have practice first and the team had also arranged a pasta party before that. So Phil gathers up the rest of the things he needed for the day and darts downstairs in anticipation.

"Hey, honey, are you heading out soon?" Phil's mother asks from the table as Phil hurries around the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm leaving right now," Phil says as he grabs a water bottle.

"Woah, woah, slow your roll!" Phil's mom stands up and grasps Phil's shoulders as he tries to get past her. Phil lets out a slow breath as he looks into his mom's face. "Alright, sorry. Can I go now?"

"No, you can't," Mrs. Lester says as she takes her hands off Phil's shoulders. "Okay, so you're going to the school right now, and the game is starting at 7?" Phil nods. "Do you want me to be at your game? I'm working from home today, so it won't be an issue."

Phil debates both options for a moment - Phil might get nervous knowing his mom was in the crowd. But he's already nervous, so what difference does it make? Coming to this realization, Phil agrees and says, "Yeah, if you could."

"Alright, I'll be there, then. First game of the season, you excited?" Phil's mom grins at him.

"Yeah, kinda nervous though."

"Well, that's normal, I'm sure you'll be fine. Getting along with the team alright?"

Phil mouth falls open. "Oh my god, Mom, can we not do this right now?!" Truth was, everyone was nice enough, but no one really talked to him. Except for Andrew and his other closest friends, Ryan and Erik. Jack hadn't said one word to him more than he had to at practices.

"Yes, fine, sorry," Phil's mom replies. "Go have fun." She motions toward the garage door with her head. "Thanks. Love you, Mom." Phil gives her a one-armed hug and a smile before pushing past her into the driveway. Phil unlocks his car and climbs into the drivers seat, tossing his bag into the passenger's side. He buckles his seatbelt. He starts the car. And with a final deep breath, Phil starts the drive to school.

* * *

The bright white lights surrounding the field stand out against the dark night sky, blinding Phil as he takes to the field for the last time that night. Time had seemed to fly past in a blur, each thing only lasting for a second; the pasta party, the practice, the game. Until everything slowed to an agonizing snail's pace, leading up to this moment. The only things Phil is aware of are the football. The lights. The clock counting down the last minute of the game. And his own pounding heart. Suddenly time resumes to normal speed, and too soon Phil has jogged over to the line of scrimmage on the 30 yard line. That was it. 30 yards. Down 5 points, all the team needed was another touchdown for them to win.

30 yards.

The team lines up in their positions on the line of scrimmage. As a wide receiver, Phil takes his place on the edge, and he surveys the rest of the team down the line as he waits for the play to start. Luke would snap the ball, Jack was to do a handoff, and Phil would block for the runner as he ran the ball downfield. It was simple, because this far in the game the opposing team would be expecting tricky, complex plays. Going for a straight, clean win was the coaches goal.

Phil takes his ready position and watches Jack as he prepares to start the play from the corner of his eye. The cheering of the crowd fades and is replaced by the pounding blood coursing through his ears. Any second now. But just as Luke is about to snap the ball, Jack takes a step back and stands. "Timeout!" He calls to the referee. A collective sigh resounds through the field as the players relax. Phil and his team collapse their line as they form a huddle around Jack.

"Dude, what's up?" Luke says. "We changing the game plan?" Jack glances around the team, his eyes lingering on Phil for a second too long. He nods.

"Yeah. It's too far for a running play, and there's not enough time. This is our last chance. But we can do it. We're going to do a passing play. The most recent play we've learned. Everybody got it?"

The football team nods in agreement, but Phil is barely aware of his movement. This was his play. It was all up to him to score that touchdown.

"We ready?" Jack's voice snaps Phil back in to reality, and Phil realizes Jack is staring right at him. His stare is cold and hard, but calming. Grounding. Encouraging and discouraging at the same time. Phil's nerves are shaken and quelled, his heart made steady and erratic all at once. He nods. "Ready." Jack acknowledges him with a curt not. Then he claps. "Let's do this!"

The huddle breaks up with a chorus of whoops, and the team returns to their spots on the line of scrimmage. Phil tries not to look up at the crowd as he take his place, knowing his mom was somewhere up there, watching. Knowing Dan was up there.

Phil pushes those thoughts out of his mind and steels himself. He takes the ready position, staring down the opposing team in front of him. He glances down at Jack. "Hike!"

Everything happens exactly as it's supposed to. Luke snaps Jack the ball, and their players protect Jack and Phil as the opposing team runs toward them. Phil's legs burn as he sprints down the field, taking yard after yard underneath him as his long legs carry him across open turf. He was in the perfect position. Phil turns over his shoulder and sees Jack, and he holds up his hands for the pass he knew was coming. In a matter of seconds, the ball leaves Jack's hand and is soaring through the air. The next thing anybody knows, the ball is safely tucked away in Phil's arms and he's back sprinting down the field. Phil is barely aware of players rushing towards him, only focusing on getting down the field, but his own teammates flank and protect him, tackling any other player that tries to tackle Phil. 30 yards turns into 20, 10, 5, and finally Phil crosses into the end zone.

He had done it. With just a few seconds left on the clock, Phil had won the homecoming game for his team.

The crowd erupts into cheers and Phil just stands there, shocked, staring down at the football in disbelief. But he doesn't get to stand there for long, because suddenly several people start tackling him from all around himself. It was his teammates; they were congratulating Phil on his touchdown in that weird way only football players do by pulling him into large bear hugs, smacking any part of his arms and back that is available. A wide grin splits onto Phil's face as he's buried under his teammates. All his worries fade away, and the only thought left consuming is mind is that he had won the homecoming game for his team.

Well, not quite yet. There were still a few seconds left on the clock. After the ruckus dies down, the two teams line up again to finish out the game. The opposing team hurls out a last ditch attempt to win, but Phil's team easily holds off their advances until the seconds dwindle down into nothing. The buzzer sounds, and it's official. They had won the first game of the season.

Again, the crowd erupts into cheers, and the rest of the football team comes onto the field to join in the celebration. Andrew comes up to Phil and says something to him, but Phil can't hear over the noisy stands. Phil holds up his hands in confusion, and Andrew nods, then gestures for Phil to follow him off the field. The rest of the team begins to follow both of them back to the bench, and after Stuart talks to them, they all grab their things and head past the stands, back across the parking lot, into the school and locker room.

Whoops of excitement still fill the air as everyone goes to their lockers. "Fantastic effort tonight, boys!" Jack calls as he enters the room. "Phil." Phil looks up in shock after hearing his name come from Jack. "Er, nice job during the last play," Jack finishes, with the tiniest, _tiniest_ , hint of a smile playing on his lips.

It was the smallest compliment Phil could've gotten, but it made him feel great nonetheless. "Thanks!" Phil says with a wide grin spreading to his cheeks. Jack gives him the smallest nod in acknowledgement, much like the one he gave Phil earlier that night, then turns to his locker to change out of his football uniform.

"Amazing play tonight, Philly," Luke says as he approaches his locker next to Phil's. Andrew voices the same compliment, and Phil thanks them before beginning to change. Of course, he always followed the number one rule of locker rooms, keeping his eyes to what he was doing, but ever since his secret came out, Phil had followed this rule even more strictly. It was like he put blinders next to his eyes, focusing only on what he was doing, very careful to not let his eyes wander accidentally. Even though Jack was surprisingly nice to Phil after the game tonight, Phil knew how Jack could be and didn't want to give him any excuse to bring up his sexuality. Or, god forbid, bring it up to Coach Stuart.

Soon, Phil has finished changing and almost finished packing up his things. "You almost done?" He says to Andrew and Luke, not taking his eyes off his bag.

"No, not yet." "Me neither. You don't have to wait for us, though," his friends say, seeing he was already ready to go.

"Alright. I'll catch up with you guys later." So Phil walks out of the locker room, casually keeping his eyes on the floor until he leaves the room. Phil pulls out his phone for the first time in hours and checks his notifications as he starts toward the main entrance to leave the school. Most of his notifications were recent texts from his friends congratulating him on the winning play, and after replying to those, Phil starts to check snapchat while he exits the front door and starts to his car in the parking lot.

Suddenly, Phil hears a voice, "Hey, there he is! Phil!"

Phil looks up and see Paige calling him, standing with Dan, Nathan, and Lucas near what he recognized as Dan's car from seeing it in Dan's driveway. Phil smiles, and he shuts off his phone then quickly joins them. "Hey guys! Glad you could make it!"

"Of course!" Dan replies, looking up at Phil with a smile. "Really nice job. Winning touchdown," he remarks.

Phil laughs a little, embarrassed. "Thanks," he says, biting his lip. "Walk with me?" Phil gestures aimlessly down the parking lot, presumably towards his car.

"Sure."

The group of friends walk with Phil towards his car. They chat a bit more about the game and the teams, and gradually each teen splits off to their own car until it's just Dan and Phil left walking. "Alright, here we are," Phil says as he approaches his truck.

"Have I ever told you how much I like your car?" Dan comments as Phil starts to throw his things into the backseat.

"No, but thanks," Phil laughs as he stands back up. He adjusts his fringe and wipes away some sweat still left on his hairline. "Sorry I'm all sweaty, I'm still kinda hot from running around and whatever."

"It's fine, you're always hot," Dan says without even thinking, looking at Phil thoughtfully.

Phil's eyes widen and his mouth falls open a bit. "Wh.. what?" He squeaks out.

Finally Dan's brain seems to catch up with his mouth as he realizes what he said. "Oh.. oh my god, I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that," Dan says with a forced, nervous laugh, running his hand through his hair. Then he rubs the back of his neck and his eyes dart away; looking everywhere, anywhere _._ Anywhere that wasn't Phil.

"Um, well, thanks I guess?" Phil can barely keep his mind from thinking about what that meant. A silence falls over the two, and eventually Dan blurts out, "Listen, I should probably go. Congrats again." And Phil barely has time to mutter a goodbye before Dan rushes off to his own car.

Sighing, Phil gets into the drivers seat of his pickup truck and lets his head fall onto the steering wheel. Why was everything so confusing with Dan?!

A/N: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was pretty long, I know, but I thought it all tied together nicely so I didn't want to publish it in two separate chapters. But it's also been a while since I updated, so hopefully it was worth the wait! as always, fav and follow if you'd like to; i love seeing who enjoys my work, and please review! xoxo, ~l


	9. Chapter 9

The next Monday at school, to Dan's relief, Phil doesn't bring up what Dan said to Phil after the football game. Dan even begins to hope Phil forgot about it. But Phil definitely remembers. In fact, it comes to mind every time Phil catches Dan staring at him from the corners of his eyes the rest of the week. But of course, Phil does his fair share of staring at Dan, too (how could he not?). Alas, the week passes normally, or at least as normal as it could.

It seems the football team has a new.. respect, almost, for Phil. His winning touchdown has broken down barriers, and more and more guys on the team start becoming friends with Phil. Of course, Jack never really talks to him. But his glares have simmered down to just stares, and Jack would, on rare occasion, give him an approving nod or smile during practice. Phil couldn't help wonder if Jack's coldness towards him was just because Phil was gay, or if it had something to do with Dan and whatever happened between him and Jack last year.

In any case, the weekend after the game Phil pulls into Dan's driveway and turns off his car, then walks up the driveway to Dan's front door for his piano lesson. On the way there, faint music drifts through the air as he walks, and it gets louder until Phil can hear beautiful piano music being played as he stands outside the door. Dan must be practicing on the grand piano just inside the house near the front hall. Phil listens for a moment more, unwilling to knock on the door and disturb the melodic notes. Acting on impulse, Phil tries the door very gently - it was open. He steps inside quietly, desperate to hear Dan play more now that the front door isn't muffling the music.

So Phil softly closes the door, and quiet as a mouse makes his way inside the piano room doorway. There Dan was perched on the bench in front of the sleek piano, music set in front of him, playing his heart out. Phil watches Dan intently, amazed at how effortlessly his fingers dance across the keys and pull the melody from the strings. Dan's hands smoothly and lightly float over the black and white bars; the rest of his body moves and sways with the music. Suddenly, everything stops. Dan picks up a pencil on the music rack and begins to jot down something on the sheet music.

"Oh my god, Dan, that was amazing." No sooner do the words come out of Phil's mouth that Dan jumps in shock and drops the pencil.

"Jesus Christ, Phil! Are you _trying_ to give me a heart attack?!" Dan exclaims as he turns to Phil.

"Oh god, sorry," Phil says sheepishly. "It's just, I've never heard you play like that, and I didn't want to interrupt you. What song was that?" As if just remembering something very important, Dan jumps and quickly turns back around and grabs the music off the rack.

"It was nothing," he says quickly. "Just something stupid I wrote."

Phil looks at him in disbelief. "Something stupid you wrote? Dan, that was so amazing! And you wrote it? Can I see?" Phil holds out a hand to take the music, but Dan pulls it closer to him.

"Sorry, no, you can't," he says defensively. He nervously runs a hand through his hair and his eyes dart around the room. "Just forget about it. I'm gonna go get your piano books." And Dan practically runs out of the room, taking the music with him.

Phil stares after Dan, very much taken aback by his strong reaction, but he just steps further into the room and waits for Dan to come back.

"Alright, you ready for our lesson?" Dan says as he walks in the room with an armful of books.

"Yep." Phil smiles innocently and slips into the bench, Dan follows, and they begin their lesson. A while later, Dan remarks, "Alright, it's been about an hour. Want to call it a day?"

"Yeah, alright."

Dan stands and gathers the rest of the books while Phil closes the piano book they had been working from. He starts to hand it to Dan, but their fingers brush together when Dan takes the book. His heart stops. Everything stills for a moment, Dan's fingers lingering over Phil's, still grasping the book. Phil looks up through his eyelashes at Dan, barely breathing. Then time resumes with a whoosh; Dan clears his throat, adjusts his fingers, and pulls the book from Phil's grip, placing it on top of his pile. He begins to walk out of the room, but then turns back to Phil, who had also begun to stand. "Hey, um, if you're not busy, would you maybe want to hang out for a bit? We could play video games or something in my room," Dan suggests.

Phil raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, yeah, of course!" He agrees.

Oh god. Dan had invited Phil up to his bedroom. His heart begins to flutter. _Jesus Christ, Phil, what do you think is going to happen?! He just wants to play video games,_ Phil scolds himself as he follows Dan out of the room. He's barely listening to Dan babble about not judging his messy room because he's trying to calm his pounding heart. They walk up the stairs and down the hallway until Dan stops outside a door. "Well, er, here we are." Dan opens it and Phil follows him inside.

Well, he wasn't kidding. Dan's large room is very messy, but not in a bad way. Posters upon posters of TV shows, animes, bands, and movies are taped haphazardly to the light gray walls. Homework and textbooks lay on his desk next to the door, along with a thin laptop with several cords and a sleek mouse hooked up to it. The large bookshelf in the corner is filled with novels and comic books, movies, video games, a few old-school CD's, and an entire shelf dedicated to piano books, and Dan's dresser is strewn with souvenirs and pictures. Phil tries not to look at Dan's disheveled bed (and the bottle of lotion on the nightstand next to it), and instead focuses on the keyboard next to the bookshelf, where Dan is replacing the piano books.

Then Phil notices the sheet music poking out from behind a piano book set up on the keyboard's music rack. Phil really doesn't want to upset Dan further, but his curiosity gets the better of him. "Hey, is this what you were playing earlier?" Phil says as he carefully pulls the sheet music out.

"Yes, but please don't look at it," Dan says anxiously, and he quickly but gently takes the music back out of Phil's hands. "Really, please just forget about it." And then, to Phil's shock, Dan crumples up the music and tosses it in the trash can beneath his desk.

"Alright, sorry." An awkward pause falls over the two for a moment, and Phil hurriedly tries to think of something to say next.

"I love your room," He says, genuinely.

"Oh, thanks!" The tension suddenly releases at the change in topic. "And I know it's really messy right now," Dan continues, "so don't mention it, my mom does enough," he says with a roll of his eyes as he turns away from the bookshelf, surveying his bedroom with a hint of pride now that Phil had complimented it. Then Dan's eyes fall on the lotion next to his bed, and his cheeks begin to burn a violent shade of red. "So, do you want to play some video games?" He asks quickly, turning back around to look through his selection.

"Sure, what do you have?"

A minute later, the two boys are sitting on Dan's bed, playing a game on the TV across from Dan's bed. Both are hyper-aware of the other sitting just inches from themselves, wondering if the other feels the electrified air between them. However, they sit in silence, only talking to comment on what was happening in the game. A while later, it suddenly pauses and Phil looks to Dan for an explanation. "I have to go to the bathroom, be back in a few minutes." Phil just nods, and Dan leaves the room to go to the bathroom down the hall.

Instead of just waiting for Dan to come back by spending time on his phone, Phil decides to take this opportunity to look at Dan's room further. Phil stands and walks over to the bookshelf, seeing what kind of things Dan owned. As he moves on to studying Dan's desk, he notices the trash can underneath. It's empty except for the one crumpled sheet of paper. Phil really knows at this point he really shouldn't, but he fishes the crumpled sheet music out of the trash can anyway. He carefully unfolds it and smooths out the paper on the desk, glancing over the sheet.

The title simply reads 'Him'. There are small hearts doodled all around the word. Scanning down the sheet, Phil is able to pick out various chords from what Dan had taught him, but the rest was intricate note patterns much more advanced than Phil could ever decipher. There are lyrics written all around the page here and there, but Dan's writing is so messy and small Phil can barely read one line. Then Phil hears Dan's footsteps coming down the hallway, so he quickly but carefully shoves the sheet music into his sweatshirt pocket and sits back down on the bed.

And not a moment too soon, because Dan walks in right as Phil sits down. "Alright, I'm back." He takes a seat next to Phil. "You ready?"

It isn't until much later Phil gets a text from his mom, and he sees it's been several hours since Phil had left his house. "Oh! Hey, I didn't realize I've been here for a while. My mom wants me home soon, so I should probably go."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Dan says. "Do you want me to show you out?"

"No, I can find my way. Thanks for having me over." Phil smiles and stands.

"Yeah, of course. See you." And it isn't until Phil leaves the room that Dan notices the empty trash can and the bulge in Phi's coat pocket.

* * *

Phil drives home in his pickup truck with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the sheet music in his pocket for the entire drive. The second Phil gets home, he says a quick hello to his mom then rushes upstairs and into his bedroom, shutting the door and sitting at his desk. Then, carefully, he pulls out the music and smoothes it out on the desk. He carefully, meticulously, runs his hand over every crinkle in the paper in a fruitless attempt to restore the music to its original state before Dan had crumpled and thrown it away. After a few minutes of this, Phil decides that's as good as it's going to get, and he begins to pore over the actual music.

Again, Phil was able to construct the basic melody and pick out the chords, but the notes were much more advanced than his skill level. After all, he had only been playing piano for a few weeks, and Dan had been playing for many years. The small part of the piece Phil had heard Dan play just isn't enough; he wants to hear the whole thing, every note Dan had scrawled on the page, every rhythm, every chord. More than anything he wants to hear Dan play it. But after his reaction to Phil listening to him play, Phil knows that's not going to happen. And another plan starts to form in his mind. So Phil quickly gathers the papers and heads back out into his pickup truck, driving into town.

Phil's brother Martyn is two years older than Phil, and he's taking a gap year before going to college, so he moved with Phil and the rest of the family to Dan's town. Martyn found work in town at the local Starbucks and had begun to make friends with many people because of it. One guy he had met, Kyle, is the assistant manager in the music store a few buildings down from the Starbucks, even though he's pretty young. He and Martyn became friends quickly after Kyle regularly stopped by to grab coffee on his breaks. Consequently, Phil had become friends with Kyle over the summer as well.

Soon, Phil pulls into a parking lot, stops his car, and walks into the empty music store. The little bell on the door tinkles softly, and Phil hears a voice call "Hello! I'll be right with you!" from the back room. A few moments later, Kyle comes out of the room, guitar in hand, with a smile plastered on his face and his welcome speech ready. "Good morning, welcome to- oh, hey, Phil!" A genuine smile replaces his fake one as Kyle recognizes the boy who just walked in. "What's up?"

Phil offers him the sheet music. Kyle sets the guitar on a nearby stand to free up his hands and take the music, and he asks, "What's this?"

"A song someone, uh, wrote for me," Phil makes up. "I don't know much about music though, so I wondered if you could tell me more about it and maybe play it?"

"Yeah, of course." The 19 year old crosses the store to a cluster of keyboards along a wall, and he swings a stool in front of one and sits down, still holding the sheet music. "Why is it all wrinkly?" Kyle asks.

"Well, uh, er - never mind that," Phil dodges the question. "Can you tell me anything about it?"

"Well, this looks like a love song to me. The melody looks very pretty, though I haven't played it yet, and the title with the heart kind of gives it away," Kyle says with a smirk. "Who wrote this for you? Your girlfriend?"

"Boyfriend, actually," Phil corrects before realizing _what_ exactly he was correcting Kyle to.

"Oh. Uh, okay, mind if I ask who?" Kyle asks, slightly taken aback.

"Dan Howell?" It comes out as a question, as Phil is still trying to process what he just said and why - good lord, why? - he said it, but Kyle assumes the question was because Phil was asking if he knew Dan.

"Oh, yeah, of course I know him! He comes in here all the time, looking for new piano books and other music stuff for his band," Kyle says with a little nod and smile.

"Alright, cool. Anyway, do you think you could play it?" Phil changes the subject, gesturing to the sheet music in Kyle's hands.

"Oh, yeah, right," Kyle gives a lopsided grin and puts the papers on the keyboard's music rack. His hands hesitate for a moment over the keys. And then they're off.

Phil looks on in awe as Kyle's hands flow across the keys, bringing out the beautiful melody Dan had written. It isn't even close to the sound Dan had pulled from the music, what with his expensive piano, skill, and passion for what he had been playing (also cause he wrote the damn thing). Nonetheless, Kyle plays the piece beautifully as well, albeit slower and riddled with minor mistakes, but Phil recognizes the melody from what Dan had played earlier. Too soon, Kyle abruptly stops playing. "Is that it?" Phil says in disappointment.

"Yeah. It doesn't really sound finished. Well, it's not my song, so who am I to judge? Anyway, you should have Dan play it for you, I'm sure he can play it better than me," Kyle laughs as he hands over the music.

"Haha, yeah, thanks though!"

"Sure, anytime."

"Alright, see you!"

The two boys wave goodbye as Phil walks out of the empty music store and into his truck. He climbs into the drivers seat and sets the sheet music on the passenger side, looking at it for a moment longer. He's still trying to process everything that has happened: Dan wrote a song. A love song, according to Kyle. Who now thought they were dating. Which made sense - the love song thing, because Dan hadn't wanted Phil to see it, the hearts, the melody, the lyrics... Taking all of this together, Phil finally lets himself realize Dan had feelings for him, too. Especially considering everything that had happened lately, which both had just ignored in fear of being wrong about their feelings. And finally, _finally_ , something happens the next week that they both couldn't ignore any longer.

A/N: follow, fav, review. you know the drill.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** I just want to preface this update by saying this chapter contains a lockdown drill at Dan and Phil's high school. It has nothing to do with and was definitely not inspired by recent events involving school shootings and other school violence. However, I do want to take this opportunity to remind my readers how important school safety is and to remember all the students and staff that have lost their lives during school shootings. Now, please enjoy this chapter!

It's the Monday after Phil had... essentially _stolen_ Dan's music. But Dan had thrown it away, so what did it matter? ...Is what Phil told himself. But even if he had thrown it away, Dan of course noticed it was missing, and his stomach had immediately plummeted as he put two and two together that Phil must've taken it. And Phil's no idiot, he could put two and two together and figure out what the song was. Because of this, Dan clung to the hope Phil hadn't taken it; he was mistaken, he'd misplaced it somewhere in his room.

So Dan tore up his bedroom, flicking through every piano book he had, checking every shelf and drawer, running his hand underneath every piece of furniture in that damn room. But of course, nothing. Then Dan checked the music room, the stairs, the hallway, nearly every room in his house, knowing it was futile and that he was acting like a complete idiot. The memory was still crystal clear in his mind of him taking the paper from Phil's hands, crumpling it, and throwing it in the trash can. There was no other explanation; Phil had taken it.

That was why, Monday morning, Dan was absolutely dreading going to school. Phil would be there, standing by his locker with the knowledge of what Dan had written about him, for him... Dan honestly didn't know why he had written the song. He just had all these bottled up feelings about Phil, so he expressed them the only way he knew how, through music. But now Phil knows them.

But when Dan got to school the next Monday, Phil didn't say anything to him. He wasn't acting odd toward Dan, not any different than usual. In fact, he seemed even more comfortable around Dan, if not more quiet. Maybe Phil was just tired, but it was more like a voluntary, thought-filled silence than a sluggish, sleep-deprived one. In truth, Phil was spending that whole first class trying to come up with a way to breach the subject of Dan's and his feelings for each other. He couldn't right then, in the middle of class, and not during lunch with all their friends around. But it turns out, 7th period, Dan breaches the subject for him.

* * *

Mr. Thompson stands up from his desk in the back corner, where Dan and Phil are sitting, and strides to the front of the room. "Good afternoon, class! Please take out your homework from last night and start discussing with your table partner." Dan and Phil happily turn to each other.

"Okay, so it was basically about how Judaism and Christianity affected Islam, right?" Phil confirms with Dan.

"Um, yeah, I think. Wait, what did you get for number 4?" The class continues comparing answers and reviewing what they had learned, and Mr. Thompson comes back up to the front a few minutes later. He calls the class to attention, and they start going over the worksheet all together, when suddenly, a siren blares over the loudspeaker, and an automated voice states "LOCKDOWN. LOCKDOWN, _"_ over and over again.

The entire class freezes for a second, staring at the speaker. Then Mr. Thompson springs into action. "Alright, everybody! Most of you go hide in that corner over there, some of you can go under that table with the side on it, and a few can hide beneath my desk!" He yells, rushing into the hallway to see if any students are out there. He ushers a student, Katherine, inside (Phil recognizes her from his biology class), then quickly pulls down the blinds on the door and locks it.

Meanwhile, the class stands and most students hurry over to the corner the teacher had indicated. "Phil, come on!" Dan grabs Phil's hand and drags him into the other corner and behind Mr. Thompson's desk. Phil hesitates for a second. "Er, Dan?" He glances down at their hands, still clasped together. Dan follows his gaze, then blushes profusely. "Oh! Um, sorry.." he quickly drops Phil's hand and lowers himself into a cross legged position, avoiding Phil's gaze.

Phil follows Dan's lead, dropping to the floor in that awkward way only someone over 6 feet can relate to. He uses all four limbs to get himself situated while Dan watches with amusement (still slightly red, however). Then Phil accidentally kicks Dan in the shins; he gives an apologetic grin, and says, "Can you see why I need both hands to do this?" Dan grins a bit and watches until Phil is finally comfortable.

"Sorry about that." Phil gives a cheeky grin, then hesitantly places his hand over Dan's. Dan takes a sharp inhale and looks up into Phil's eyes, shocked, before glancing back down and adjusting his hand so that their fingers are interlaced. Abruptly, the lights go out (presumably turned off by Mr. Thompson), and the now silent class listens to his pattering footsteps from the light switch to the cluster of students gathered in the opposite corner.

Finally, the noise of the voice repeating 'lockdown' and the gentle whine of the siren over the loudspeaker turn off, and the school is left in complete silence. Dan turns his head to look up at Phil, just barely visible in the small amount of sunlight unable to be blocked by the window blinds. Phil returns the gaze, and squeezes his hand gently with a small smile. Dan's eyes flutter closed, and he gently rests his head on Phil's shoulder (which was at the perfect height, may I add).

The seconds tick by. Two minutes pass. Phil breathes in the smell of Dan's hair, the tantalizing scent of him just inches away from Phil's face. Five minutes pass. Phil begins rubbing Dan's hand gently with his thumb, tracing the knuckles, ridges, and creases. Ten minutes. Phil looks back down at Dan, and he must've been able to sense the gaze, as Dan's eyes flutter back open. He pulls back and looks up into Phil's eyes. Thoughts of Dan's song flood Phil's mind, along with memories of all the little things that clearly added up: The stolen glances each had snatched of the other when it appeared he wouldn't notice. How Dan always sat next to him and talked to him much more than his any of other friends. What Dan had said to him after the football game. The situation they're in slips Phil's mind, and he is seconds away from leaning down and pressing his lips to Dan's... when the principal comes onto the loudspeaker.

"Good job, everyone, with the lockdown drill. The police department was very impressed with how well you did. A full report will be sent out to the teachers. You may now return to class." It seems everyone in the class lets out a breath they had been holding the entire time. It was a drill - no real danger had been present. Mr. Thompson hurriedly flicks on the lights, and everyone begins to stretch and stand up.

Dan and Phil glance at each other and, reluctantly, Phil looks down at their laced hands. Dan sighs, and Phil looks at him apologetically. He untangles himself from Dan, and, in that same awkward way as before, uses all his limbs to push himself up off the floor. Phil looks back for a moment to see Dan getting up as well, then returns to the desk. But he sits in Dan's chair on the right instead of his, on the left. Dan slips into Phil's seat a second later, flashing Phil a questioning look. "What?" Phil asks innocently. Dan just shakes his head before turning back forward.

"Yo, Daniel, why are you sitting in Phil's chair?" Paige asks him as she plops into her own normal spot.

"Ask him," Dan says, gesturing to Phil, who just gives the same nonchalant shrug as before.

Mr. Thompson then walks to the front of the room. "Like Mrs. Snow said, I was also very impressed with how well you did with the drill. You behaved exactly how I would want you to. Nice job! Now, let's get back to work..." Once the class finishes going over their homework, they begin taking notes on Mr. Thompson's lesson for the day. But then Dan feels something nudge his right hand, resting on his thigh underneath the desk, as his left hand was taking notes above the desk. Dan looks down in surprise to see Phil nudging his hand, then he looks up questioningly at Phil. Phil just raises his eyebrows before returning to the lesson, his left hand moving to rest on his thigh underneath the desk, his right hand continuing to take notes.

Now Dan understands the reason for Phil switching their seats. But first, Dan gets up to blow his nose, and upon returning to his chair, "accidentally" scoots it much closer to Phil's. Phil's breath hitches, and he glances over at Dan, just inches away now. Dan smirks, and starts taking notes with his left hand, his right arm coming to rest on his thigh again. But his right hand crosses the small space to Phil's hand, still underneath the table, and lightly touches it. Phil grins and laces their fingers together. The two begin taking notes again, Dan's left and Phil's right hands scribbling away above the desk, while underneath their opposite hands are clasped together in secret.

* * *

They continue this for the rest of class, their dominant hands taking notes while their opposite hands lay intertwined beneath the desk. Too soon, the bell rings, and Dan and Phil quickly untangle themselves from each other lest someone see. They put away their things in silence, and a few seconds later both stand up. "Hey, um, Dan? We need to talk," Phil says as he faces Dan, blushing slightly and biting his lip, curled into a little smile.

"Er, yeah.." Dan agrees with a smile as his cheeks begin to flush.

"After school?" Dan nods, and Phil gives a small smile.

"Cool. See ya later," and he starts to walk out the door.

"See ya.."

* * *

Once school is over, Phil and Paige leave class together and arrive at Phil's locker several minutes later. "Hey, Dan," Phil says.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" Dan says, turning around.

"Dan," Paige acknowledges him, but she doesn't go to her own locker. "I like your shirt," she points out Dan's Twenty One Pilots t-shirt.

"Oh, um, thanks!" Dan gives a shy smile.

"Paige, not to be rude or anything, but can you leave? I, uh, need to talk to Dan. _Alone_ ," Phil says.

"Ah, need to discuss all the hand-holding, right?" Paige grins, rocking back on her heels with her hands stuffed in her pockets. The boys gape at her. She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes. "Oh, come on. You were sitting inches apart from each other, and your other hands were noticeably missing for the entire period. Not to mention I could see you," she snorts. "I don't even want to know what you were doing during the lockdown drill."

"Paige! We were not doing anything," Phil hisses.

"Likely story," she says with a smirk.

"You would have heard us!"

"So that's the reason you weren't doing anything? Cause you would've gotten caught?"

"No - that's - that's not - that's not what I meant-" Phil sputters.

"Mmhm," Paige smirks again, then turns with a flip of her ponytail and sashays down the hall toward her locker.

"Erm, anyways.." Phil turns back to Dan. "M-maybe we can find somewhere a little more.. private to talk?" They glance around at the only other people down the hall who were looking their way, perhaps trying to hear what they were saying now that Paige and Phil's loud conversation had intrigued them.

"Yeah. The Dungeon is right around the corner," Dan suggests. The Dungeon is the students' nickname for the only hallway downstairs from the ground floor (so it was essentially underground), which contained all of the fine arts classrooms.

So Dan and Phil sling their backpacks over their shoulders and walk down the hall, passing Paige, who was alone at her locker, on their way to the Dungeon. The two walk in silence, then turn the corner and go down the stairs. Phil slows as they approach the first set of lockers in the empty hallway, then turns and leans against one, facing Dan.

"Ok.." They start simultaneously. Dan and Phil look at each other in surprise, then hurriedly gesture for the other person to speak. "You first," they say in unison again. Dan lets out a shaky laugh and Phil bites his lip with a smile. "Shall I start?" Phil asks. Dan nods with tentative smile.

"Ok.. I - I know we said a while ago we were just friends.. like brothers. But.. I-I like you a lot more than that. And in a much different way. Now, call me crazy, but after everything that's been happening recently, especially today, I think it's safe to say you feel the same way," Phil says with a grin. Dan gives him another tentative nod and smile.

"Yeah, I do."

Phil sighs in relief. "Oh, thank God. So.. would you maybe want to go out with me sometime?" He asks hopefully, almost holding his breath. Even after being best friends for months, something about Dan made Phil feel all fluttery inside.

"Of course," Dan says softly.

The simple phrase does nothing to calm Phil's butterflies, if anything, it makes them flutter even more.

"So, how 'bout we go to homecoming together? I know it's this weekend, so kind of short notice, but I mean now that we're together.." Dan rambles, and Phil lightly nudges his shoulder to interrupt him.

"Yes, I would love to go to homecoming with you," he says. Dan smiles again.

"Great, okay!"

Phil opens his mouth, hesitates for a moment, then finally continues: "Just.. can we not tell anyone we're going, like, together? I just don't think I'm ready for everyone to know..." Phil gnaws on his lip and he looks down.

"Yes, of course, Phil," Dan instantly reassures him. "We don't have to tell anyone until you're ready."

"Thanks, Dan."

Dan looks up at him with the sweetest eyes and sweetest smile as Phil looks down at his soft face. _Ugh, it's just not fair how cute he is._

"Wait, uh, can we tell our friends?" Dan asks him. "I don't really want to keep this from them."

"Oh, yeah, of course! Just not, like, the whole school, you know? Maybe just the people at our lunch table?"

"Yeah, they're basically the only ones I want to know about this."

"Alright, cool. Well, this sucks, but I have to get going. Practice. I'll talk to you later, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Phil begins to walk up the stairs again, but he suddenly turns back around and paces toward Dan, who was still standing there. Phil comes closer until he's just inches away from Dan's face, until suddenly, he stops. "Sorry, erm.. would it be alright if I kissed you?" He breathes. Dan just nods, unable to breathe. Phil hesitantly cups a hand behind Dan's head and presses a soft kiss to his lips, but just as soon as it starts, it's over. They stare into each other's eyes for a moment, until Phil breaks the silence:

"Oh, and before I forget..." Phil reaches behind himself and pulls Dan's song out from his backpack, and presses it into Dan's hands. "Maybe I can hear you play it again sometime?"

Dan nods, speechless, and Phil smiles again. "Alright, bye," he says quietly, and then Phil's gone again. Dan stands there for a minutes longer, staring at the sheet music, then reaches up and touches his lips, remembering the feel of Phil's lips on his. And, with a little grin, Dan glides away.

 **A/N:** hey guys, thanks for reading this update! i hope you enjoyed; _finally_ Dan and Phil are together! like i said at the beginning in the first a/n, the content of this chapter has absolutely nothing to do with recent school violence. i got the idea for this chapter literally months ago, and it has been sitting finished in my doc manager for weeks now (just had to do some editing, also i published a phanfic last weekend and it'd be amazing if you could check it out, titled "target practice"), so i'm v excited to publish this chapter! this chapter is because i basically asked myself "what would force dnp to be very close for an extended period of time?" and bam, this idea blossomed. so i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it, and don't forget to review, follow, and fav if you feel so inclined :) xoxo, ~l


	11. Chapter 11

Dan and Phil talked last night, like every other day up till then, into the late hours of the evening on Snapchat. But this time it was different, in that they didn't have to hide their feelings for each other. Once during their conversation, Dan took an accidental selfie that made him look high, drunk, and like he was about to sneeze, all at the same time. But he sent it to Phil anyway, with a caption saying "i look really ugly but imma send this anyway", and then he moved into a response to Phil's previous snap. Phil had responded "you could never look ugly". It was a distinct, but distinctly better, change to be able to say what he was thinking. Not have to hide his feelings.

Besides Dan's accidental selfie and Phil's response (which then resulted in a slew of bad selfies he and Phil took to see who could out-do each other in a bad selfie competition), they also set up a time to hang out later in the week. It was difficult, because Phil had a few hours of football practice every day after school. Eventually they decided to have a study date the next day - casually hanging out after Phil's practice. It still made Phil nervous, what with it being the first proper time he and Dan had hung out alone. And as a couple.

However, it is only the first period of the school day now, and they have hours to go before their study date. Phil walks down the hallway where he can already see Dan at his own locker next to Phil's, getting his books needed for the day. When he approaches Dan and their lockers on the wall, he lightly touches a hand to the small of Dan's back. "Hey," he says, "it's good to see you."

Dan starts slightly at the gentle touch, but when he turns and sees it's Phil, he relaxes into Phil's arm. "Good to see you, too," he replies, smiling. Phil quickly takes a hand off Dan before someone can notice the intimate gesture, and begins to unlock his locker.

"You look really tired," Phil prompts, concerned; but he looks over at Dan in a slightly scolding way, how Dan imagined his mother would look if she knew about his late sleep schedule.

"I had to stay up to do a geometry assignment after we talked," Dan lies defensively, suddenly becoming self-conscious of the dark circles he knew would be there; hanging like shadows beneath his eyes and haunting him with the memory of sleepless nights.

"Ah, sorry. Liu, right?" Dan nods. "Well, hopefully that won't happen tonight, right? I'm looking forward to our study date," Phil says quietly with a little grin. Despite his soft comment, Dan still glances around to make sure no one heard him. After Phil had said he didn't want anyone to know they were going out, Dan realized he didn't want many people to know, either. He's still getting some homophobic crap from his peers, definitely not as much as before now that Phil had said (*yelled) something, but he still overhears snide whispers from time to time which he was clearly intended to hear. Having everyone know he's dating Phil would just make things worse for both of them. But almost no one's in the hallway, anyway; it's almost time for class. Besides, half the school doesn't use their lockers anyway, they just carry around their backpacks for the whole day.

"I'm looking forward to it, too," Dan says with a smile. The two close their lockers, now that they each had their books for their morning classes, and head into first period together.

Phil sits in what had been Dan's seat today again, but as Dan goes to sit in what would've been Phil's seat, Paige (already sitting there) throws out a hand to stop him. "Uh-uh," she says, looking straight at Phil instead, who looks up in surprise. "Phil, you get your ass over here and tell me what's going on." Dan looks at Phil questioningly as Phil looks at Paige like a scared puppy. However, he complies, and sits next to Paige as Dan gratefully sits down. Yeah, he and Paige are friends, but really only cause she and Phil are. Truth be told, Paige scares Dan a little bit.

"What?" Phil asks Paige innocently, but the nervous tremor in his voice gives him away. (If I'm being honest, Paige can scare everyone a little bit.)

"What do you mean, 'what'?!" Paige whispers harshly at him. "When I asked you what was going on with you and Dan yesterday, you just left me on 'opened'!" She yell-whispers again.

Phil winces. "Sorry. It's just easier to talk about this in person," he whispers back.

"Ya could've at least explained that to me on Snapchat," Paige snaps, but in a softer tone than before. "So what _is_ going on?" She shoots a glance at Dan, who was doodling in his notebook, trying (and failing) to pretend like he wasn't listening.

"Well, we talked about it after you left, and we're dating now?" Phil whispers, turning to Dan just to make sure. He nods ever so slightly, and Phil turns back to Paige.

She looks back and forth between the boys. "You are?"

Phil nods.

"Oh, thank the Lord!" Paige looks towards the heavens in gratitude. "I thought it'd never happen."

"Paige, stop," Phil shushes her, a red tinge starting to decorate his cheeks. Paige looks over and notices Dan's pink tinge creeping up in his cheeks, too, and she grins.

"Sorry, sorry. I take it you're not being public about it yet?" The two boys shake their heads.

"How'd you know?" Dan says sheepishly.

"You just seem very secretive about it. Don't be embarrassed, though; it's fine to take things slow. I wouldn't want the whole school to be involved in my relationship either."

Just then, Mr. Thompson rises from his desk behind the three, walks to the front of the room, and begins to take attendance. When he gets to Dan's name, his mind returns to the conversation he just overheard from the three students who sat in front of his desk. Most teachers wouldn't care about the drama of three high school student's lives, and wouldn't think twice about overhearing that conversation. In contrast, Mr. Thompson is thinking smugly: _now McLain owes me twenty bucks._

* * *

The hours pass slowly until it's time for lunch. After attendance, Dan and Phil had agreed to tell their friends they were dating at lunch. But of course, not that easily. After their friends had pestered them about it for so long, they decided it was only fair to tease them a little bit.

"Hey, guys," Phil says as he and Andrew approach the lunch table. They squeeze into their normal seats, Phil next to Dan, and Andrew between Phil and Emmett.

"Hey, Phil. You look really hot today," Dan says bluntly, earning several surprised looks around the table from their friends.

"Thanks, you do, too, babe," Phil responds, further surprising their friend group. He would've punctuated the sentence with a quick peck on Dan's lips, if not just to taste Dan's lips again. But, it was definitely not the time, and he didn't want to send his friends into cardiac arrest. So instead, he settles for a lingering look at Dan and wets his lips every so slightly with his tongue; then as Phil sets his sack lunch on the table, he lets his hand come to rest over Dan's, unintentionally sending flutters through both of their chests.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" Lucas exclaims, throwing up his hands as he looks back and forth between Dan and Phil.

Dan laughs as Phil giggles, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. "Sorry, sorry," Dan starts to apologize. "You know what, I'm not sorry, the look on your guys' faces is _priceless_." Dan dissolves into another burst of laughter.

"Alright, alright," Phil says with a roll of his eyes. "You want to tell them?"

The table looks on in anticipation as Dan starts: "Okay, sure. Well, as you all wanted, Phil and I are going out now."

Lucas looks up at them hopefully, surprise still evident on his face. "Are you guys for real?"

"Yep," Phil laughs.

"Well hey, man, good for you," Andrew inputs, smiling. The other guys at the table begin to voice their congrats, Lucas going on about how he knew it was meant to be.

"Okay, now can you guys knock it off? We're not going public yet, and y'all are being really loud," Dan says, glancing around the cafeteria; thankfully, no one was looking their way. Their conversation must not have been able to be heard over the loud chatter of the cafeteria.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Nathan says.

"So like, are you guys like 'dating-dating'?"

"What does that even mean, Ben?" Dan looks at him in exasperation.

"You know what I mean."

"No, I honestly don't!" Dan laughs again.

"Are you guys going to homecoming together?" Nathan asks.

"I mean, kind of."

"Technically yes, but again, people don't know about it," Phil says. "Are you guys going?"

The other guys all look around the table at each other. "I guess we could, just all as friends?" Emmett suggests, and everyone starts to agree.

"Well, I'm going in a group with some football guys," Andrew starts, "we're all getting dates too, I've already asked Ashley to go with me."

"Wait, what?" Phil turns to Andrew. "You didn't tell me that."

"Sorry, I didn't think it was important. It's not like we're dating or anything, we're just going to homecoming together," Andrew responds, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Not that. 'Football guys'? Who's all going?"

"Erik, Jason, Tony, a lot of guys," Andrew lists off.

"Like, the whole football team?" Phil asks in disbelief, as the rest of the table watches the drama unfolding.

"Well, not the entire team..." Andrew trails off.

"And why wasn't I told about this?" Phil demands.

"It's not that big a deal! We're not going to be hanging out the whole time; I'll be with Ashley a lot, and I can hang out with you guys, too."

"Great, thanks; I'm glad to hear I'm your second choice," Phil says bitterly.

"C'mon, don't be like that! You know you're my best friend."

"And yet, you didn't even tell me you were going to homecoming - _without_ me, and with a whole bunch of our team, who also didn't bother to invite me!"

"Sorry, Phil, I didn't even know you were going. I don't know what else to say."

"Yeah, whatever." Phil stabs at a noodle, then stands abruptly without bothering to eat it. "I'm getting a drink." He stalks away from the table, and Dan jumps up to follow him, shooting a worried look towards his closest friend, Lucas. He tries not to think about the awkwardness he's leaving Andrew and the rest of the guys to simmer in.

Dan follows Phil to a vending machine by the corner. "Hey," he says softly, mimicking the gentle brush to Phil's back Phil had given him earlier. "Why are you getting so worked up?"

Phil feeds a dollar to the machine, then turns to Dan. "It's just... Andrew and Ryan and Erik... they're my closest friends on the team. Everyone else barely talks to me." He makes a selection on the machine. "It feels like I'm getting nowhere on the team, just stuck in the same group of friends. Who don't even bother to tell me they're all going to hang out at homecoming without me," he says bitterly, grabbing his drink from the machine.

"I get that, I'm sorry, Phil. Just keep talking to the other guys, maybe give them some advice? Show them you care, and they'll make more of an effort to be friends with you," Dan offers. "And if they don't invite you places, just realize they're not your true friends. But maybe ask them about it, see if there's another reason they didn't invite you. You could be blowing this out of proportion."

"You're right." Phil looks up from the can in his hand. "Thanks, Dan."

"Of course. Let's head back."

A/N: hey guys! thanks for reading this new chapter, not a lot happened, ik. i wish i could just skip to their dates and get to the dramatic stuff, but i'm in the midst of writing their study date right now, so hopefully it'll be up next weekend, so stay tuned for that! anyway, hope you enjoyed this update, i added some cutesy dnp stuff i hope you liked, i loved writing it, obviously. fav or follow if you like this fic and want to know what happens next, and please leave a review telling me what you think! ~l


	12. Chapter 12

Phil takes a deep breath, checking his phone again to see the time. It's nearly 20 minutes past 7pm; his mother held him up, making him late: after his practice ended at 5:30, Phil went home, had dinner, and began to leave for Dan's house. However, Phil's mother asked him questions about where he was going, and Phil settled for just telling her he was going to a friend's house to study.

"A friend's house?" His mother had repeated. "Like just some.. random guy at school?" She waved a hand aimlessly through the air in confusion.

"No, um, this guy Andrew, on my football team," Phil said.

"Oh! Wasn't he the one who showed you around the school?"

"Yep, that's the one," Phil replied, anxiously checking the time again. It was already 7 o'clock, the time he and Dan were supposed to meet. Phil's mom noticed his demeanor, however.

"You're just studying?" She asked suspiciously.

"Yes, mom!"

"And he's just a friend?"

"Yes, oh my god, what is that supposed to mean?!"

Phil's mom grinned a bit. "Nothing, nothing, I'm just glad you're hanging out with your friends on the football team outside of school."

"Okay, thanks. Be back later," Phil said, and he tried to walk past his mom, but she stopped him.

"Hey," she scolded, opening her arms for a hug.

"Must you do this every time?" Phil said in exasperation, however he leaned down to give his mom a hug.

"Love you."

"Love you, too."

Finally his mom let him through to the garage, and Phil arrived here at Dan's house just a minute ago.

He raps on the front door a few times and shoves his phone back into his pocket. The door opens a few seconds later, and Dan welcomes him inside. "Hey, Phil, come on in."

Phil steps inside gently. "Hey, sorry I'm so late. My mom was holding me up with all these questions." He rolls his eyes.

"Questions?" Dan asks as he leads them into the living room. The bright, but soft, lights illuminate the clean, meticulously organized room. The only things out of place are Dan's papers and schoolwork already cluttering the coffee table in front of a couch.

"Yeah, she wanted to know where I was going, blah blah blah. I told her I was studying with a friend but she was still suspicious I wasn't telling her everything. I mean, all I didn't tell her was I was gonna be with my boyfriend," Phil explains as he sits with Dan on the floor, dropping his backpack next to him.

"I love hearing you say that," Dan says with a smile, turning to face Phil.

"Me too." Phil smiles back.

"So, uh, do you just want to start working on homework? Are you hungry or anything?" Dan questions.

"Nah, I'm good, thanks," Phil says. He begins to pull some books out of his bag and sets them on free space of the coffee table, then turns back to Dan. "So, what did you tell your parents? About me coming over."

"Uh, well, my mom's actually not home right now again. She's rarely ever home, leaving early and getting home late, so I didn't tell her anything about you coming over," Dan says, looking slightly guilty.

"Oh. What about your dad?" Phil questions, flipping open a notebook.

Dan suddenly gets very quiet and looks down at the table. "He... he died when I was really young," He replies shakily. He quickly reaches across the table to grab a pencil and starts doodling on a worksheet.

Phil turns to him in with arched eyebrows and his mouth forming a Cheerio sized 'o'. "Oh. Oh, god, I'm so sorry, Dan, I didn't know."

"How could you, I never told you. All these months, and I never even told you..."

"No, Dan, stop that. It's your place to tell; it's not my place to know," Phil says. He puts a comforting hand on Dan's thigh and looks down into his eyes.

"I still want you to know," Dan says with a sad shrug. They both turn back to their work as Dan continues: "He died from cancer when I was about 4. My mom just kind of threw herself into her work, to distract herself from it all. Even after all these years, I don't think she's fully over it. But she's a really successful businesswoman now - she's at a dinner party right now with a 'potential client' - which is how we can afford such a nice house. I'm sure you were wondering about all this," Dan says, gesturing to everything around him: the plush couch, sleek coffee table, expensive television, and fancy decorations.

He falls silent for another moment, and Phil looks up from his homework. It's clear Dan's done talking about it for now. "What about your dad, I've never heard you talk about him before," Dan asks, the unspoken question hanging in the air.

"He's in the military. I don't see him often at all, but we're forced to move wherever he gets stationed, so I've always been the new kid."

"That sucks. Why did we both have to get stuck with such crappy lives?"

"I have a feeling things'll get better." Phil turns up one side of his mouth and looks at Dan again, placing a hand on Dan's knee.

"Why do you have to be so sappy all the time?" Dan laughs, but he puts his hand over Phil's, anyway, and soon their fingers become intertwined. They hold each other for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes. Then Phil gently releases Dan's hand, and they return to silently scribbling on sheets of paper.

"So you said your mom isn't around a lot," Phil breaks the silence. "That must suck."

"Yeah, I guess so. We get along well enough, though, even if we don't see each other a lot. What about your mom, is she around a lot?"

"Yeah, she is," Phil says thoughtfully. "She works normal hours, I suppose, but she works from home a lot. She's almost always around when I'm home, too."

"That must be nice. Why didn't you tell her you were meeting with.. your 'boyfriend'?" Dan uses the word for lack of a better one to call himself, but grins internally at hearing it, nonetheless. "Does.. does she know you're gay?"

"Yeah, she knows I'm gay; I told her a few years ago. It's just.. she gets really nosy, you know?" Phil laughs. "When I had my first, and only, girlfriend freshman year, she asked me everything about her and always wants to know everything about everything, about school and football and stuff. I just didn't want to go through that right then about you," Phil explains.

"Ah, okay, I get that. But, did you say you had a girlfriend?"

"That was before," Phil says, rolling his eyes. "So, does _your_ mom know you're gay?"

"I don't think so. I've never told her, and I've already told you she's pretty distant, so I'd be surprised if she knew."

"Are you going to tell her eventually?"

"I guess I have to, right?" Dan says. "Now that we're together and all. I've never really had a reason to tell her before."

"Well, that's as good a reason as any, right?"

"How.. how did you tell your parents?" Dan questions.

"I just.. told them, one night at dinner. You don't have to make a big deal about it, if you don't want to."

"So how'd your parents take it?"

"They were fine with it. For the most part. My dad's got this idea men have to be _manly_ ," Phil says huskily, lowering his voice, "and be all about _women_ and _sports_ and _beer,_ " He grunts. Dan laughs in spite of it all. "But," Phil continues, "I guess that since I play football, my dad thinks it cancels out the gay thing, so it's okay."

"That sucks. You shouldn't have to deal with that."

"It's fine." He shrugs. "I like football."

Dan and Phil continue working on schoolwork in silence, only punctuated by a comment (most along the lines of "I want death,") or an occasional question, but they were also just chatting about nothing in particular. They had a research paper due in World History the next week, so they were helping each other with that, too, and they took a snack break a few minutes ago.

"I should get started on this Lit paper, too, the outline is due on Friday," Phil mutters, shuffling around some papers. "Hey, so what are we doing about homecoming?"

"Well uh, wait, what do you mean?" Dan asks, clearly taken off guard by the sudden change in topic.

Phil sees this and explains: "Sorry, I was thinking about Lit, then Andrew, then football then homecoming. But like, do you want me to pick you up? Meet there? Are we going out for dinner? What are you wearing? Give me something to work with, Dan."

"Okay, that was way too many questions," Dan laughs. "I have no idea!"

Phil rolls his eyes with a smile. "Alright, first, do you want me to pick you up first?"

"I mean, sure. Does it really matter?"

"I guess not, but, do you want to go out to eat beforehand? Maybe all of us could get together. Except Andrew," Phil adds with an annoyed eye roll.

"Sure, I can ask them." Dan exchanges his pencil for his phone, and within minutes he's gotten all his friends to agree. "Alright, Nathan, Lucas, Ben, and Emmett said they're up for dinner before the dance. Do you have room for all of us in your truck?"

Phil does a mental tally of all the people. "So that's six of us total? Yeah, but either the four of them'll have to squeeze in the back, which is already really cramped, or they'll have to sit in the bed," Phil laughs.

"Alright, we could take my car, then." Dan owned a Honda, not overly expensive, but not cheap, either. "The four of 'em can squeeze in the back and you can sit in front with me."

"Sounds good, glad I get the good seat," Phil laughs again, and the two fall silent again, focusing on schoolwork. It's nearly 9:30 by the time Phil's getting ready to go home, as his mother wants him back before 10. "She's so overprotective, but I get it," Phil tells Dan.

He packs up all his papers and other schoolwork into his backpack, then follows Dan to the front door. "Thanks for having me over. It was _actually_ fun doing homework with you," Phil says.

"Ha, yeah, you too. I didn't get a _ton_ done, but more than I would've normally. You kept me on track, anyway," Dan says.

Phil takes a small step towards Dan. "So I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yep."

"Can.. can I kiss you good night?" Phil asks hesitantly. Instead of responding, Dan just smirks the tiniest bit and closes the gap between them. He hesitantly wraps his arms around Phil's neck, ruining the false sense of confidence he was trying to create, but Phil allows Dan to lead the embrace. Dan pulls the taller man down to his level, and Phil wraps his arms around Dan's back as their lips connect softly for just a few seconds until Dan loosens his grip on Phil. His arms slip off Phil's shoulders as each teen steps out of the embrace, then they pause and stare into each others eyes.

"So, good night, then, Dan." Phil breaks the silence and adjusts a fallen strand of hair back into Dan's fringe. Then gently, gently, he leans down and gives Dan a peck on the cheek.

"Night, Phil. See you tomorrow." Dan watches Phil leave the house and get into his truck from the open doorway. He places a hand on the cheek Phil kissed as a smile and soft blush creep onto his face, and he wave's a last goodbye to Phil as he drives away.

 **A/N** : hey guys! hope you enjoyed this chapter. please tell me what you thought, because i focused a lot on dialogue this chapter and i don't normally do that. unnatural talking is a big pet peeve for me, so i tried to make everything dnp said sound like something they'd say irl, but i'd love to hear any suggestions you have for me on my writing. sidenote, finals are next week! i'm so stressed, but like last semester, i'm writing fanfiction instead of studying. go me. but thankfully, another year school is almost over! so thanks again for reading, and, ofc: fav, follow, and review! :) ~l


	13. Chapter 13

The days pass uneventfully; almost nothing changes. The only thing that changes is Dan and Phil get even closer, if that's possible. They almost exclusively talk to each other during class, and Paige grows increasingly annoyed with the boys because of this. Eventually she gives up on them and talks to Hayden, a quiet kid on her other side in their line of four who immediately regrets his choice of seating for the year. Unfortunately, anyone else to talk to is across the aisle which divides the tables, so there's no escape for poor Hayden.

Dan and Phil hang out nearly every night for study dates, going out to grab dinner beforehand at a small, local sandwich shop. After a few of these little dates, the weekend, creeping up behind them all this time, suddenly pounces along with the homecoming dance.

Saturday night, a few hours before the dance starts, Phil changes into his simple suit. It's a semi-formal dance; his friends are all going to wear the same type of thing. He carefully walks down the stairs, the excitement building in his chest, but he forces himself to slow down in fear of messing up his clothes. When Phil enters the kitchen, his mom rises from the kitchen table and walks over to him. "Oh, you look so handsome, Phil," she squeals. Phil swears he can see a tear starting to form in her eye.

"Oh, lord." Phil rolls his eyes but blushes slightly. "I'm leaving now," he calls over his shoulder on the way through to the garage.

"Hey, hey, hey! Get back over here!"

Groaning, Phil makes his way back to the kitchen. "What?" He sighs overdramatically.

"So you're going to have dinner with your friends, then go to the dance?" His mother questions.

"Yes."

"And who are these people again?"

"Just people from school I've been hanging out with. They sit at my lunch table: Dan, Nathan, Lucas, Emmett, and Ben." Even after being through all this, Phil still repeats everything for the sake of his mom's worry.

"Alright. Make sure to text me when you're going to the dance, and call me if you ever need anything. You're not going to an afterparty or anything, are you?"

"Well, we might hang out at Dan's house for a bit after." At his mom's furrowed brows, Phil hastily continues: "But it's definitely not a party. Not my thing."

"Okay. Make sure to be home by curfew."

"Okay. Can I go now?" Phil asks, already making to inch his way past his mother.

"Oh, alright." They share a quick hug. "Have a good time! Stay safe! Text me!" His mom's voice carries through the air as Phil walks away.

"Okay!" Phil calls back just before he shuts the garage door behind him, and he gets into his car. After shooting a quick text to Dan that he was on his way, he starts the car and begins the drive to Dan's house.

Soon he arrives and parks on the street just outside Dan's house, as the driveway was already taken up by two cars, and he walks up to the house. After ringing the doorbell, Phil hears some scuffling and muted voices, then a few seconds later Dan opens the door. "Hey," Phil says, and he steps inside and gives Dan a quick kiss. "You look... amazing," Phil tells Dan once he pulls away and looks Dan up and down before settling back on Dan's eyes.

"So do you," Dan replies breathlessly.

"Alright, alright, break it up, loverboys," Lucas says, coming around the corner from the kitchen with a juicebox in hand, Emmett following him.

Phil steps away from Dan quickly, a light blush with an embarrassed smile creeping onto his face. "Hey, guys. Who else is here?"

"Ben, but he's in the bathroom," Lucas says.

"So we're just waiting on Nathan." Lucas nods. "Is your mom here?" Phil asks Dan.

Dan shifts uncomfortably. "No. I told you, she's almost never around."

"I just thought that-" Phil stops speaking after seeing Emmett shake his head slightly and the look on the two guys' faces behind Dan. "Just- nevermind..."

Only a minute passes as the boys wait for Nathan; once he arrives they make quick adjustments to their appearances and leave for dinner. They go to a local restaurant, not fancy, but good enough for homecoming, and steer clear of a group of people in their grade who are there as well. The dinner flies by uneventfully; they act like normal, rowdy teenage boys before a dance, and are soon leaving for the school.

The boys pile out of Dan's car at the parking lot of the school and enter together. After checking in with the minimal security outside the school, they make their way inside and through the decorated hallways towards the gym. There's probably a hundred people littering the hallways, just standing around and talking or walking toward the gym, too. Outside the cafeteria there's tables full of refreshments all along the walls leading down to the gym: cookies, brownies, fruit, soda, lemonade, you name it. There are also several other hallways unlocked and lit up branching off from the main one that contain bathrooms for the students to check their appearance or on the off chance one actually has to use the bathroom.

"Should we go dance?" Lucas asks, gesturing to the noisy gym just down the hall.

"What did you think we were at a high school _dance_ for?" Dan asks with a mocking smirk.

"Oh, shut it. Let's go." Lucas leads the way into the dark gym, snaking a path through the groups of students milling about the hallway. Hundreds of other students are already filling up the large gym, dancing to the music pumped through the speakers by a DJ and sound system at the front of the gym. Well, 'dancing' isn't quite right. More like.. hopping and grinding on other students. There are more decorations to fit the dance's theme, like balloons and signs stuck to the walls, as well as brightly colored, flashing spotlights lining the gym, just barely illuminating the rest of the room.

The group of boys join the throng of dancing students, and begin hopping around with the best of them. They alternate dancing and getting refreshments, and gradually the boys begin to get split up in the controlled chaos of a high school dance, moving to party with other peers they know. Phil sees Andrew and joins his group for a few minutes, later spotting Jack and his little posse, and quickly regroups with Dan and the other guys he came with.

As the night goes on, people get more out of control as the secret flasks they snuck in become empty, but of course, the one supervisor they have positioned at the entrance to the gym can't do anything about their inappropriate dancing in the middle of about 500 kids crowded in a stuffy, overheated, dark gym. Dan and Phil share a look after seeing a couple making out next to them, and Phil pushes his way out of the center of the kids, motioning for Dan to follow him.

They leave the gym, and weave through people down the main hallway until they're the last people at the end. "This is torture, Dan," Phil groans. He lowers his voice after glancing at the students chatting just a few feet away: "I can't stand it, seeing all those couples grinding on each other and making out, and I have to just stand there, not being able to kiss you in front of everyone."

Dan looks at Phil with a small, confused smile. "Well, I don't know what to tell you, Phil," he whispers. "Do you.. do you want to go public?"

"I don't know," Phil mutters. He steps even closer towards Dan. "All I know is that I need to kiss you right now."

Dan grins then inconspicuously pulls Phil into a nearby bathroom. After they both check quickly to make sure no one was in there, Phil turns to Dan. "You really do look amazing, Dan."

"I know," the shorter man says smugly, and soon they're kissing, and it seems like nothing else matters. Well, one thing does. But it stays in the back of their minds like an ant crawling on one of their legs; the tickling sensation makes sure they're aware of it, but they don't care enough to try and place the feeling. It's just a harmless little ant, right?

And then the bathroom door opens.

Dan and Phil spring apart and look toward the door wildly, but thankfully, by some godly miracle, it's only Lucas.

"Good lord, guys, might want to find somewhere a little more private to do that," Lucas says with raised eyebrows, shocked.

"Yeah, that's why we're in the bathroom," Phil responds, his cheeks burning.

"Well maybe lock the door next time!" Lucas exclaims, but it's clear he's not actually mad. "Now, I need to take a piss, so either piss with me or find another spot to make out."

Dan follows Phil out of the bathroom, throwing another apologetic look towards Lucas, both of their faces still red. They cautiously slip out of the hallway and turn down a few more until they get to an empty, dimly lit one.

Phil looks down the empty hallway and turns back toward Dan. "We're alone," he says suggestively.

Dan raises an eyebrow. "I've noticed," he replies smoothly, and they're back to kissing within seconds. Phil pushes Dan back up against the lockers, and they kiss deeply for moments on end. And then Dan hears the clicking - of high heels, maybe, but he's so caught up in what he's doing Dan doesn't fully register it until right before it stops, and he breaks the kiss and puts his hands up against Phil's chest, looking toward the end of the hallway to see a group of people standing in the door frame.

Their silhouettes are barely illuminated by the dim lighting, but Dan can make out the figures: it looks to be 2 couples, coming to do (*smoke, drink) God knows what in the secluded hallway. "Phil, Phil," Dan mutters in warning, but Phil doesn't notice his tone.

"What, baby?" Phil mutters back, pecking him again on the lips.

" _Phil_." Dan pointedly looks at the people in the doorway before looking down in embarrassment at having been caught. Phil finally turns around and his eyes widen at the sight of the couples, and he quickly takes his hands off Dan and steps away.

"Oh, my god."

"Phil?" A masculine voice speaks up from the darkness, one Phil vaguely recognizes.

"Yeah?" Phil says, cringing.

"Oh, my god," a feminine voice mirrors Phil's earlier interjection. The small group hurries away in a chorus of whispers and giggles, and Phil turns back to Dan with wide eyes.

"Did you know those people?" Dan asks Phil. Phil thinks back to the male voice that spoke, and he's finally able to place it.

"I think so. I'm almost positive that was Chris and Aaron and their dates. It was definitely Chris that spoke, and did you see the other guy? Totally looked like Aaron," he sighs, falling back against a locker next to Dan.

Dan turns his head to look at Phil. "So, what does that mean?"

"Well, they're Jack's best friends," Phil says with another sigh. "I'd be surprised if he doesn't know what we were doing by the end of the hour."

"So.. what does that mean... for us?" Dan asks tentatively. "Do you... still want to be my boyfriend?" He forces the words out.

Phil looks down at Dan in surprise. "Of.. of course I do. Other people knowing doesn't change how I feel about you," Phil says, somewhat confused.

Dan glances up through his eyelashes, biting his lip. "Really?"

"Yes, Dan. It was stupid of me to want to hide our relationship. I don't care who knows anymore," Phil says as he turns and leans his shoulder on the locker, and he uses a finger to lift Dan's chin slightly.

"Even Jack?"

"Even Jack."

"I'm just worried he'll do something, or say something.. you know..." Dan looks away again.

"Well, let him. I've yelled at him once before," Phil says with the tiniest hint of a smile. Dan finally smiles again, but it quickly falls off his face.

"It's just..." Dan starts, "last year.. was just awful. I don't want to go through that again. I don't want _you_ to go through that."

"Hey, hey," Phil says. "We'll get through whatever happens. Together. Yeah?"

Dan agrees, and Phil kisses Dan's forehead before they return to the main hallway. Thankfully, none of the people in that group are in the hallway, but Dan and Phil still quickly round up the rest of their friends and head home. Why wait for any trouble to walk up to them? Besides, it's getting late, anyway. Phil barely has time to hang out at Dan's house before he has to get back to his own house before curfew. Damn Mrs. Lester.

A/N: hey guys! hope you enjoyed this chapter. shameless self promo: i published a soulmate au a few weeks ago and i'd really appreciate if you guys could check it out! ok, self promo's over, back to this fic. please leave me a review telling me what you think and fav if you enjoyed and just haven't already, and if youre just now finding this fic, follow if you want to see what happens next! ~l


	14. Chapter 14

Phil arrives to school the following Monday morning with a ball of dread lodged in his stomach, painfully aware that Jack must know about him and Dan by now, but he remembers what he told Dan that night: whatever happens, they'll deal with it together. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Phil's pretty popular at school; it's not like he has _tons_ of friends, but people are always friendly and everyone knows who he is. Making the winning touchdown at homecoming really boosts one's reputation. It's not like Jack can destroy that just by spreading around the fact that Phil's dating Dan.

As Phil thinks about it as he walks to his locker, he realizes it's not even that big of a deal. He never gets any homophobic crap from his peers - sure, he sees Dan get looks every now and then as they walk together, but it's been weeks since Phil yelled at Jack and nothing else has happened. No one really cares anymore.

Well, maybe one person does.

Phil feels the presence appear behind him as he stands alone at his locker, Dan not being at school yet. "Phil," the guy says, and Phil instantly places the voice as Jack's. He turns around, and the second he sees Jack's face, he knows Jack knows about him and Dan. He's not sure what Jack's going to do about it, but something is about to go down. And he's afraid to find out what.

"What's up?" Phil cringes at how awkward he sounds.

"Oh, not much." Jack crosses his arms. "I heard you and Homo Howell were uh, gettin' busy in the hallway during homecoming," he says, surprisingly nonchalant. Phil wasn't sure what he was expecting - anger or disgust, maybe, but this certainly isn't it.

"Don't call him that," Phil says quietly. Something about Jack and their confrontation makes him nervous, submissive. Everyone around them watching isn't helping.

Jack takes a step closer to Phil, further making him cower, even though he's about 3 inches taller than Jack. "I'll call him whatever the fuck I want to call him," Jack says, the venom Phil was expecting sneaking into his words. "We need a nickname for you, too," Jack taunts. "What do you think about 'Faggy Phil?'"

Phil's breath catches at the harsh word, but he moves past it and tries to get the conversation over with. "What do you want, Jack?"

"I just want to set some things straight. I don't want to see you and your faggot boyfriend making out or doing any other shit in these hallways, alright?" Jack steps even closer as he bites out the words, slamming a hand on Dan's locker next to Phil.

"Stop saying that," Phil gasps out, and his vision starts to blur. The only thing he's grateful for is that Dan isn't around for this.

"I'll say whatever the _fuck_ I want to say," Jack repeats what he said earlier. And that's when Phil sees him. His gut wrenches as he sees Dan, standing just a few feet behind Jack with a horrified look on his face. But it quickly turns to one of anger as Jack continues: "And I don't care if I _offend_ you," he mocks. "Why would I care about a fucking fag?"

Everything moves so quick after that, Phil's not really sure what happens. Dan's there in a flash; he forcefully whirls Jack around, and the next thing Phil is aware of is Jack, hands covering his bloody nose, staggering away from them. Phil looks with wide eyes at Dan, whose hand is balled in a fist.

But Dan's not looking at Phil.

Dan goes after Jack, punching him in the stomach before Jack can even try and defend himself. Jack doubles over, clutching his stomach, and Dan jabs hit after hit to Jack's face and torso until he collapses on the ground against the lockers.

Dan drops down next to him. "I have tolerated you hurting me for the past _year_ ," he hisses. "But you do not-! Hurt-! Phil-!" He punctuates each word with another hit, and finally Phil comes to his senses and rushes forward to pull Dan back, along with another kid. He and the kid pull Dan up and away from Jack, and together they pull Dan through the crowd gathered around them and push their way into the men's bathroom down the hall.

"Dan!" Phil cries the second the door closes. "What was that?!"

Dan looks down at his bloodied hands as if just now noticing what he had been doing, and he looks back up at Phil. "I... I... I heard what he was saying to you, Phil. I let him bully me all last year, there was no way I was gonna let him do that to you, too."

"Well, you didn't have to do that!" The kid who helped Phil exclaims as he gestures to the hallway just outside the bathroom, and Phil finally realizes the kid is Lucas. Why did it always seem to be just the three of them in bathrooms? And then Paige, of all people, bursts through the doors.

"Paige?"

"That was really stupid. But brave," she says to Dan.

"What's going on out there?" Phil asks anxiously.

"After you left, one of Jack's friends pulled him away. To the nurse, I guess. All the teachers are at a breakfast meeting, can you believe that?"

Phil turns to Dan. "You... you could be expelled."

Dan sighs. "I know."

"Thank you for defending me, but... that was really stupid, Dan."

"This was long overdue," Dan says quietly.

"Was his bullying really that bad?"

"There were... other things."

" _Now_ will you tell me?"

Dan sighs. "Later."

No one says anything for several more seconds.

"Well, at least wash off your hands."

Dan cleans himself up as the four try to figure out what to do. No one could prove Dan beat up Jack; there were no teachers around. He might not get in trouble. That is, if no one tells on him. But hey, no one likes a tattletale.

"Is Jack okay?" Phil asks Paige.

"From what I could see it looked like he had a black eye and a broken nose. I'm not sure what else Dan did to him."

Dan cringes as he finishes drying off his hands. "Are you mad at me for doing that?" He asks Phil quietly.

"Honestly, no. I've just.. never seen you like that before."

"That _was_ really unlike you, Dan," Lucas says. "I've seen you mad, but... never like that. You must really like Phil," he remarks with a snort.

Dan looks up at Phil with a little quirk of his mouth. "I do."

Phil smiles back. "I really like you, too."

"Why are you guys bonding over Dan beating someone up?!" Lucas exclaims incredulously.

Phil blushes and looks back at Dan. "Well.. thanks again. He _was_ really bothering me."

Dan's face contorts with a frown. "I could tell."

Suddenly, the warning bell rings. "Alright, we should go." The group of friends leave the bathroom and enter Mr. Thompson's room, Lucas splitting off to his own homeroom. The moment the trio enters the classroom, all heads swivel to the doorway at them. Shaking off the stares, the three walk to their desks in the back corner. Mr. Thompson doesn't arrive to the silent classroom until a few seconds before the first bell rings.

"Good morning, class!" Mr. Thompson says. The usual chorus of greetings hangs unspoken in the air as still no one says a word. Dan shifts uncomfortably. "Woah. Guys? What's up?" Mr. Thompson pauses and surveys the classroom. Finally, one student speaks up.

"Do you know anything about Jack?" A student known for their good grades, Liam, says. Dan and Phil cringe.

Mr. Thompson frowns. "Jack? Jack who?"

"Jack Glabowitz."

"What about him?"

Liam doesn't respond.

"Liam?" He turns to the rest of the class. "Guys?"

"There, uh, was a fight this morning. I think he's at the nurse," another student says.

"What? With who?"

Dan shifts again, but thankfully, no one elaborates although a few people glance his way.

Mr. Thompson grumbles something and simply strides towards the back of the room. Dan's breath catches, but Thompson is only heading for his desk right behind their table, where he sits down in front of his computer to compose an email to the nurse. Meanwhile, Paige turns to Phil. "Give me your phone," she mutters.

"What? Why?" Phil whispers back.

"Just do it." So Phil hands his phone over after unlocking it, trusting Paige but warily watching over her shoulder. He watches Paige open his Snapchat, but then she turns away from Phil, and, ignoring his protests, only returns the phone several seconds later.

"What did you do?" Phil says with wide eyes, quickly taking his phone back to see Paige sent a chat to Jack. He opens it, horrified, to see a message saying _"you tell anyone it was dan and i'll make your life as miserable as you did to his"._ "Paige!" Phil exclaims.

Paige just gives him a smug smile.

"What did she do?" Dan peers over Phil's shoulder and reads the message, then turns to gape at Paige. "I cannot believe you sent that to him." Paige just shrugs and begins to doodle in her assignment notebook.

Phil turns to Dan with a pleading expression. "There had to have been _something_ that caused this.." he glances back at Mr. Thompson and continues quietly, "..weird.. _rivalry_ between you two. Will you tell me now? Tonight, when we hang out?"

"..Fine," Dan concedes. "Tonight."

A/N: hey guys! sorry for the slight cliffhanger, and sorry it took nearly two months to get another chapter up. i was just suffering some serious writers block and you know how life can get. i did publish some other fics if you'd like to check them out; i added to my soulmate au and published a new oneshot. in any case, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and, as always, fav, follow, and review. it doesn't really seem like people are reading or liking this fic, so i'd really appreciate any feedback. ~l


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** hey guys! i'm so sorry it took like six months to get another chapter up! i was just not interested in writing this story at all, and instead worked on my soulmate au and published a few other short stories on here (please check them out if you're interested!). i was also going through some life stuff as well as suffering writers block, but thankfully now i have time and inspiration to continue this fic. since it's been so long, here's a quick summary of the story up to this point so you don't have to go back and skim through previous chapters:

Dan and Phil are both juniors at the same high school. Phil moved there that year due to having a father in the military and joined the football team. Dan was bullied pretty heavily by the football team for coming out as gay the previous year, largely because of the quarterback, Jack (for reasons you are about to find out!). After becoming friends with Dan, Phil came out as gay, too, and called out the football team one day at lunch for the bullying. Phil dealt with being accepted by the school and team as well as denying his feelings for Dan. Once he found out Dan wrote a love song for him, the two got together and attended homecoming with Dan's friends. Some football players caught the two kissing at the dance and reported it to Jack, who began to bully Phil the following Monday. Dan intervened, beating up Jack and resolving to tell Phil about what happened between them sophomore year, which is where our story picks up.

that summary was trash but hopefully you're starting to remember the story and it will keep coming back to you. you're welcome to look back through chapters to find details, but i've written quite a few, so feel free to leave a review or send me a pm with questions. again, sorry its been so long! now this authors note has been long enough, so please enjoy this long overdue chapter:

* * *

Phil runs a hand through his hair as he paces back and forth across his front hall. Dan should be getting to his house in just a few minutes. After a couple months of knowing him and a couple weeks of dating him, finally Phil will know what happened between Dan coming out and Jack starting to bully him.

After some more pacing and sending thanks to God that Phi's mother is at an appointment, there's a knock on the door. Phil takes a deep breath. He opens the door to Dan standing on the front stoop, light rain drizzling behind him. Phil looks past his boyfriend at the gloomy day, the sun trying to shine through the light gray clouds and brighten the sky. He had been completely oblivious to the weather up until this point. "Hey, Phil," Dan greets him.

Phil's eyes return to the boy in front of him. "Hi," he says as a grin starts to split across his face. "Come on in."

Dan follows Phil inside, combing a hand through his slightly damp hair. Usually they hang out at Dan's house; Phil says it's because he likes the space and quiet they don't usually get at his own home - true, but Dan suspects it's also because Phil's embarrassed.

The beautiful house Dan lives in is simply bigger and nicer than Phil's. Phil shares his with his loud, messy older brother and flighty mom, whereas Dan has only an absent mother to share his with. Being in a military family and having moved here about 4 months prior, stray boxes seem to permanently decorate the already cluttered, small, two-story house that barely has room for the Lesters' possessions without them.

Dan loves it.

Such a nice change from his meticulously cleanly, sprawling house that suffocates him with loneliness, Phil's house is anything but. The smaller rooms envelop him with the love that flows through the household. The front hall contains only a lamp, coat rack, and staircase inviting him inside; the living room full with worn couches and knickknacks on shelves from past vacations, documented by skewed picture frames; the kitchen littered with coffee stains and cookie crumbs attesting to the incomplete family dinners shared regularly.

The stark contrast makes Dan ache every time he arrives back to his house and realizes everything he's missing. However, he drives these thoughts out of his head and enters the kitchen with Phil, determined to value the time he has with his boyfriend.

"My mom's at an appointment right now," Phil explains as he sits at the empty table, usually doubling as Mrs. Lester's workspace.

"Oh, okay. Is your brother home?" Dan asks.

"No, Martyn's at work," Phil replies absently while he turns to the backpack already on the table and pokes around in it.

Dan drops his backpack on the floor and joins Phil at the table. "So, we're home alone?" He raises an eyebrow.

Phil's eyes dart up to meet Dan's, and a faint pink hue joins Phil's cheeks. "Uh, well... well, yeah," he stammers in response to Dan's smirk.

Suddenly the smirk dissolves into an open-mouthed grin as Dan starts laughing. He playfully reaches over and punches Phil's shoulder. "You giant dork," he teases. Despite himself, Phil's blush fades and a smile overtakes his face. Dan's laughter subsides and he flutters dramatically, "I'm just here to study."

"You wish you weren't," Phil mutters coyly.

Dan feigns shock at the retort. Phil giggles again and decides to change the subject before Dan can make another sly remark: "No, but uh, you were also gonna explain things? About today?"

Dan's eyes widen slightly as he's reminded of the events of that morning. No other students had brought up the fight, and thankfully, no teachers had pulled him aside and told him the Dean wanted to see him. Dan's friends had muttered a harsh "what were you thinking?" at lunch (where Andrew had not joined them), but nothing more than that.

"Oh. Right." Dan drops the gaze and begins to take out some schoolwork.

"I mean, Andrew told me some stuff about how it all started, but he didn't really know either. What happened between you and him, Dan?" Phil prompts.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

That throws him for a loop. Why wouldn't he want to know? "Yes, Dan," Phil encourages him with a furrowed brow.

Dan starts: "Right, well.

"A few months into sophomore year, I came out to my friends. They were cool with it, whatever. Then I guess it just kind of spread around in that weird way stuff just gets around a high school until everyone knew. I was doing a lot better in school at that point than I am now, so I was one of those hundred tutors the school has on a list for people to contact if they're struggling in a class. A few weeks after I came out, Jack texted me asking for help in algebra - he got my number off the list online. So we set up a time where he would come to my house, it was fine.

"But when he came over.. things felt a little off, like he would do and say things that made me feel kinda weird, sit a little too close to me or look at me a bit too intensely."

Phil's eyes begin to bore holes into the worksheet he's staring at while listening to the story, sure it's not going where he thinks it is, but also knowing that it is.

"About an hour in, he asked to take a break from doing math. I agreed, and then he started asking me all these weird questions about me coming out, my sexuality. I pretty much assumed I knew why. I felt for the kid, so I answered his questions, but then... he kissed me."

"What?!" Phil exclaims, his head snapping up.

Dan makes a helpless gesture. "I know!"

"What did you do?!"

"Well I stopped him, obviously. Then I could tell he kind of freaked out, and he started telling me I could never tell anyone what he did, couldn't tell anyone about him - I guess he's bi or whatever - basically threatening me into silence.

"I didn't tell anyone of course, but he must've heard a rumor about him or just wanted to make sure his tracks were covered, so he started bullying me. Things just escalated and, well.." Dan just shrugs. Phil already knows what happened next.

"That's horrible. Jesus," Phil says, stlll looking at Dan in disbelief. "I can't believe he did that."

"I can cut him a little slack cause I know what he's struggled with, and I'm sure you do, too, but otherwise I'm right there with you," Dan grumbles.

"So-? Wh-? Why-?" Phil's mind struggles to piece together a coherent thought. Dan makes another gesture with his palms up. Phil takes a breath and lets his frustration go. His hand comes to rest over Dan's. "I'm sorry you had to deal with that," he states genuinely. Dan smiles sadly, barely registering the words as his heart begins to flutter.

Phil slides his hand up Dan's arm to rest on his shoulder, electrifying Dan's arm everywhere it brushes. "I promise it'll never happen again," Phil assures him as he looks deep into Dan's eyes. Gratitude and affection flood Dan's heart, and he leans across the corner of the table where Phil meets him. They softly lock lips, Phil gripping Dan's shoulders as Dan's hand come up to twist in Phil's hair. After a moment, Dan releases him and they pull apart.

Phil bites his lip and looks down, hair flopping in his face and trying not to grin. "So much for just studying, hm?"

A/N: alright guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter! hopefully youre still invested in the story, i'm planning to start uploading again every month or so. please check out the other hs au im writing right now and other stories of mine! as always, fav, follow and review xX ~l


End file.
